Women Do Cyber has announced 40 new scholarships to mobilise and bring more women into cyber security career development opportunities from May 2023.
The scholarship opportunity will also offer women in cyber mentoring support from established women cyber practitioners and technology leaders through the Cisco and Scotland Women in Technology (SWiT) networks.
To date, the programme has successfully created more than 20 women graduates, kickstarting their cyber journey and preparing them to take on cyber jobs, apprenticeships, and further learning.
With this initiative Glasgow Caledonian University, in partnership with Cisco and SWiT, supported by funding from the Scottish Funding Council and the National Transition Training Fund, offers an accessible fastrack pathway to Graduate Apprenticeships in Cyber.
“The cyber skills gap continues to grow in Scotland and globally, and contributing to that skills gap is the lack of diversity in the cyber workforce,” Ketty Lawrence, SWiT Vice Chair said. “Supporting more women to move into cyber careers will both increase the size of our workforce and the variety of skillsets. That variety of skills is crucial for increasing innovation, productivity and ultimately ensuring Scotland is a safe, secure, and resilient nation.”
Lawrence continued: “Women face persistent barriers in accessing male dominated career sectors and we have to work together to help overcome these. We’ve supported some amazing women to start their cyber journey and hearing how empowered they have become makes all the hard work worthwhile.”
Flexible and accredited, the online study opportunities are designed to build knowledge of the fundamentals of cyber security, quality candidates in maths, and develop their principles of cyber security operations. Learners can then attain the Cisco Cyber Ops Associate professional certification.
Successful candidates will be able to evidence their cyber skills to their employer, showing they understand security concepts and monitoring, host-based analysis, network intrusion analysis, and security policies and procedures.
The scholarships will cover the tuition fees for three modules and the Cisco accredited Cyber Ops Associate qualification. Each module carries academic credits and on completion, these will count towards the entry criteria for GCU’s Graduate Apprenticeship BSc (Hons) Cyber Security should they wish to continue into further studies as part of a paid position.
Elizabeth Barr, Head of the Cisco Networking Academy for the UK & Ireland said: “This is a real opportunity for candidates to layer sought after cyber skills onto their existing and valuable transferable skillset. By doing so it provides tangible access to rewarding and high value careers in cyber security, spanning from Information Security Engineers to Cybersecurity Sales Specialists. With women representing just 24% of the cyber workforce, it is critical that we continue to equip and inspire more women to consider cybersecurity as a profession.”
With over 13,000 new jobs opening in tech/cyber every year in Scotland, cyber skills are in high demand across Scotland’s industries and many jobs go unfilled every year. To address the gender gap within that skills shortage, it is vital that women are connected to educational pathways to develop the knowledge and skills required to access great employment opportunities with their current or future employers.
Claire Young from GCU’s Institute of University to Business Education said: “We welcome all women who would like the opportunity to develop cyber security knowledge and skills, which we know are in such high demand. We’re very keen to encourage those with no prior experience, including women returning after a career break and those whose role may be at risk, in addition to women looking for a career change.”
This Cisco networking academy course is delivered by GCU by an all-female academic staff team. Participants on the programme will be supported by SWiT with opportunities to connect with women in cyber careers, mentors, employers and wider industry.
The co-created approach is designed to give candidates the combination of educational development and practical experience they will need to match employer expectations and job opportunities.
Two online information sessions for potential participants and employers interested will be held on the 16th and 27th of March.
More information about the programme can be found here.
Source: DIGIT