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ITVZH: Talent for SMEs
SMEs in South Holland are digitising and facing a shortage of digital talent. This poses a risk not only to the companies themselves, but also to the regional economy. That is why a coalition of WE-IT, Security Delta (HSD), Dutch Innovation Factory and IT Campus Rotterdam, has joined forces under the name 'IT Verband Zuid-Holland' (ITVZH). An ambitious multi-year programme has been set up with a clear goal: to reduce the IT talent shortage. The programme is co-funded by the National Growth Fund. More info.
Initiatives
The programme includes a series of initiatives based on identified labour market bottlenecks. Such as strengthening education and training programmes, intensifying research and development projects, and stimulating cooperation between SMEs and educators. The focus on IT talent is on a broad target group: from school pupils and students to lateral entrants and current IT professionals. This lays a foundation for a future in which South Holland businesses can count on a solid flow of IT-skilled personnel.
HSD is among others developing the following initiatives for this purpose:
1) Instrumented competence framework for SMEs
We develop and pilot tools to:
- translate business objectives into IT competence needs;
- identify existing IT competences among SME personnel;
- rank existing courses that best address identified competence gaps.
This also helps activate SMEs to work on their cyber resilience, since many planned digitalisation projects require cybersecurity-related competences within teams.
The account managers of ITVZH and its partners engage with SMEs to help them develop their expertise. They can also connect SMEs to a Cyber Resilience Centre or one of the “Digiwerkplaatsen” to start addressing their digitalisation and cyber resilience needs.
2) Cybersecurity introductory courses
Especially for SMEs and secondary school students, HSD is supporting the development of introductory courses on cybersecurity together with our partners. The course for secondary education aims to enthuse students about cybersecurity and IT, so that they can make a more conscious choice for an education and a career in IT at an SME. Instead of developing a new introduction course for SMEs, we want to provide companies with guidance in picking the best-fitting one since there are many available already. With the course for SMEs, we aim to provide businesses with practical guidance for operationalising cybersecurity by explaining IT security and information security in a clear and understandable way, enabling them to further develop in these areas in a focused manner.
Do you want to stay informed about the programme's process? Check out:
More information?
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