Publication ‘Human Capital Agenda Cyber Security’ and updated website Securitytalent.nl

On 21st of December the ‘Human Capital Actieagenda Cyber Security’ was published. This agenda is developed to tackle the discrepancies on the Cyber Security labour market. Increasingly organisations are looking for cyber security professionals, but they are in short supply. A modest estimate is an acute shortage of 230-600 professionals in The Netherlands with a demand that is growing over 10% per year. There is also a qualitative mismatch between demand and supply. Overall the access to talent in cyber security needs to improve. The agenda aims to increase the pool of cyber security talent via two tracks: improve the connection between education and labour market, and attract & develop more talent.

Goals

The agenda is branded as an ‘agenda for action’ to emphasize the need for action that has to be taken regarding the lack of skilled professionals. This cannot be solved with a simple flip of the switch or by any organisation alone. It requires coordinated efforts and innovative solutions of public and private partners combined. The agenda plans to realise the following goals:

• Focussed growth in educational offerings and available teachers;

• Strengthened connection between the educational programmes and employer needs;

• Increased number of students that choose for a career in cyber security;

• Develop competences of cyber security professionals;

• Stimulate retraining programmes to grow the talent pool.

Securitytalent.nl

One of the Human Capital Programmes prior accomplishments is the launch of www.Securitytalent.nl. HSD Security Talent is the education and career community for students and professionals in the fast-growing field of safety and security. It enables students to make informed study choices and HSD-partners can bring their vacancies directly to the attention of the scarce security talent. This way HSD stimulates a career in security and contributes to employers increasing need for security talent. Competent personnel is key  for the Dutch Security cluster to be able to realise more jobs, more business activity and a safer world.

To serve the students and professionals better, the website has recently been redesigned and re-launched. Adding new features and offering a better and more accurate overview of the opportunities that the safety and security industry has to offer, it supports several goals of the ‘Human Capital Actieagenda’. Now, besides frequently posted vacancies and formal educations, also courses and trainings for professionals, testimonials from experts in the field and job profiles are disclosed. By linking educational programmes, job profiles and vacancies one can easily see where opportunities await and what a potential career path in security could look like.

Cooperation with partners

The HSD Human Capital Programme Team addresses urgent human capital issues that organisations working in the field of safety and security are dealing with. Many partners of HSD contributed to the development of the agenda, amongst others: Cyber Security Academy, dcypher, ECP/Dutch Digital Delta, Fortress, Fox-IT, City of Den Haag, De Haagse Hogeschool, KPN, ROC Mondriaan, Security Academy, Security & Continuity Institute (SECO) and Delft University of Technology. Even more partners will be involved in it’s realisation.

You can download the Human Capital Actieagenda Cyber Security here (in Dutch only).