Start of Quartermaster Human Capital Cybersecurity in Sectors

At the request of Security Delta (HSD), the Economic Board Zuid-Holland and the Province of Zuid-Holland have appointed quartermaster Paula Kager to help sectors with their human capital policy in the field of cybersecurity in the coming months. Cybersecurity is not an activity of the cybersecurity sector alone, each organisation must also (partly) assign this task to its own employees.

Developing employees structurally in the field of cybersecurity is becoming an ever greater necessity due to the shortage of cyber security specialists in the Netherlands. Various sectors see this too, but according to their own statements they don't get any further than putting the subject on the agenda. A stumbling block is that within sectors, which are not specialised in cybersecurity, there is limited in-house knowledge on the subject or that it has not yet been embedded in business operations such as through job descriptions, job profiles and the associated supply of cybersecurity training and education opportunities. This makes the transition from policy to implementation difficult and not self-evident.

From agenda-setting to policy & implementation

The Human Capital Cybersecurity in Sectors project focuses on the development and deployment of cybersecurity human capital in a number of spearhead sectors chosen by the Economic Board South-Holland such as Life Science & Health, Feeding & Greening Megacities, Smart Industry/High Tech and Port in Transition. The goal is to help sectors translate their cybersecurity needs into realistic, executable cybersecurity Human Capital policy and implementation.

Quartermaster Paula Kager

Paula Kager has started as quartermaster and - in close cooperation with  HSD - will be holding talks with the sectors in the coming period. Her assignment is to draw up the policy navigator 'From Agenda to Policy' based on all these discussions with the three most promising sectors. And to make a description of instruments to be used in the follow-up phase 'From policy to implementation'. HSD is pleased with the appointment of Paula, with whom it has already worked in the field of Human Capital in Security and she already knows various partners from our network.

Human Capital Accord and HCA Security

Starting a quartermaster is an exploration of a possible sub-agreement of the broader Human Capital Accord. The Human Capital Accord South Holland was signed in June 2019 by 66 parties from business, education and government including HSD. For the Security Delta, this project is part of the Human Capital Agenda Security that HSD has been working on with partners since 2019.

There is a great need to do more on cybersecurity given the ongoing threat (Cybersecurity Assessment Netherlands 2021). From this also comes the call:

"(Administrators...) should make sure they have put the right people in the right place by investing in new recruits and in training current staff. This requires a structured human resources policy, as well as a training program that is embedded in the organisation."

Already established specialists may choose to work for a cybersecurity service provider, but this sector benefits from basic resilience and expertise from the outsourcing provider. In addition, there are several education and training providers in our network that can help implement sectors' HR policies.

Want to know more about this project? Paula can be reached via email: info@kager-159works.nl or by phone: +31652825945. From HSD, Mark Ruijsendaal is the point of contact (mark.ruijsendaal@securitydelta.nl).  

Click here for the Dutch announcement of the quartermaster by the Economic Board Zuid-Holland.