We Don’t Need No Education – We Need Apprentices!

We Don’t Need No Education – We Need Apprentices!

by Budgie Dhanda, CEO of Qufaro & Adrian Davis, Visiting Professor at University of Sunderland





The lack of trained professionals in the cybersecurity industry is a problem that official statistics predict will only get worse with time. In fact, the 2017 ISC2 Global Information Security Workforce Study predicted a global 1.8M shortfall by 2022. The threats that organisations need to brace for are in continuous evolution, and more than ever is there a need for a diverse, highly skilled and highly resilient workforce to help fight cybercrime.


We’ve concentrated on degrees, professional certifications and years of hands-on experience as the benchmarks to evaluate individuals and decide whether to offer them a role within our IT security functions. These criteria, however, may be too reductive, as they inevitably force people who wish to work in cybersecurity to follow a traditional path through higher education, professional training and work experience. The security industry needs to provide more routes for interested students to learn, gain experience and start their cybersecurity professional journey.


The past few years have seen a rise in university-led cybersecurity degrees, but we believe that cybersecurity education should both start earlier and have a more vocational perspective. Qufaro, set up in 2015, is aiming to grow the UK’s cyber security talent pool by providing the development and support required to equip individuals and organisations with the necessary tools and knowledge.


Working with world-recognized qualification organizations, we’ve developed two new routes for individuals at school or further education: the cybersecurity extended project qualification (EPQ) and the Level 3 cyber apprenticeship standard, which will be released in the new yea ..

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