Demand for ICT security experts is outstripping the available supply by a widening margin. Recently released reports show that demand for ICT security professionals over the past five years grew 3.5 times faster than demand for other ICT jobs and about 12 times faster than for all other jobs. ICT security is a very relevant issue in a range of industries, including defence, financial services, retail, healthcare and professional services.
Universities today are not training enough people to deal with the explosive growth in demand for ICT security specialists and it is also clear that the cyber security issues need tackling by specialists on all levels. There is a clearly defined demand and market for the lower level (EQF levels 4-5) ICT specialists. Herewith, current project will develop an innovative ICT Security VET curricula in order to meet the requirements of today`s Central Baltic region (CBR) labour market. In order to reach this goal the consortium will perform a research to identify the specific needs and the skill gap on the labour market.
After clearly defining the required skills and competences the alliance will develop a new VET EQF level 5 curricula, relevant learning resources and train the teachers.
The overall objective of the project is to develop a model for providing ICT Security skills on the Vocational Education level with needed support systems in order to better meet the needs of the employers and to reduce the skill gap on the labour market of the Central Baltic Region.
Current project combines all important roleplayers that are needed to address the challenge:
– ICT employers from the region to identify the needed skills of ICT Security specialists;
– VET regulatory bodies who are authorized to guide the field`s education standards and focus and who know in depth the process of developing a curricula;
– VET schools will play the main role in delivering the labour market needs to students (future employees).