Cyber Taster Day showcases careers in cyber security for over 300 school children from across the South West.
27 local secondary schools will come together with employers from across the region for a Cyber Taster Day on Tuesday 3rd December held at the University of the West of England’s (UWE Bristol) in order to learn about the skills needed for a career in cyber.
The one-day event is organised by the Unlock Cyber Project, for pupils aged between 12 to 14 years. The children will participate in a range of activities which are designed and delivered by local employers including Leonardo, Airbus, IBM, PwC, OVO Energy, Nationwide Building Society, Cyber Security Associates, Amiosec and the South West Regional Cyber Crime Unit.
Cyber is an abbreviation of the term ‘Cyber Security’, which is also sometimes called Information Technology Security. The field explores the techniques of protecting computers, networks, programs and data from unauthorized access, often termed ‘hacks’, or attacks that are aimed for exploitation.
The Unlock Cyber Project, led by UWE Bristol, is working collaboratively with industry to help raise awareness, create and deliver employer-led opportunities for young people. The project has identified seven key skills needed to work in cyber and seeks to offer the opportunity to build these skills in young people from across the region. Figures from the global information security workforce study, show there are currently around 289,000 cybersecurity jobs in the UK, and this figure is growing rapidly.
Following the Taster Day, the Unlock Cyber project group will continue working with schools to create resources for cyber activities that can be delivered in the classroom. For example, Unlock Cyber will be encouraging female pupils from the region to enter the National Cyber Security Centre’s CyberFirst Girls competition, which is designed to inspire the next generation of young women to consider a future career in cyber security.
Marie Caruso, Sales and Marketing Manager at Arcanum Information Security said: “We are thrilled to be helping to run the “Unlock Cyber” event. It will give the children, teachers and careers leaders a real insight into how exciting and diverse career options are. At Arcanum we already operate an active graduate apprenticeship programme, which has been highly successful in both our Cyber Security and Digital Forensics businesses. We were keen to support the Unlock Cyber project as it gives us a chance to positively influence a much younger age group. There is a real shortage of cyber security professionals in our industry, and we need to be inspiring the children of today to want to become Arcanum’s experts of tomorrow.”
The event will be held at UWE’s Exhibition and Conference Centre in Frenchay on 3rd December 2019, for enquiries, contact elaine3.brown@uwe.ac.uk.