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EDITOR’S QUESTION
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KEVIN J SMITH,
SENIOR VP AT
IVANTI
T
echnology is now an intrinsic part
of business operations and it is
imperative people are able to fill the
digital roles that technology continues to
create. However, the number of people with
the required STEM skills to fill these jobs
is lowering and the digital skills crisis is an
ever-increasing threat to the UK economy.
According to research conducted by Barclays,
more than 40% of people in the UK do not
have the digital skills that most jobs require.
Technology and the corresponding cyber-risk
to organisations are both evolving at a much
faster rate than digital skills are being taught,
making the digital skills gap a security issue,
as well as a business and IT one.
The gap appears to develop in secondary
schools where an interest in maths and
science declines by 74% among girls and
56% among boys, demonstrating that we
need to be engaging better with young
people. An example of where this has been
done successfully is the University of Glasgow,
whose IT helpdesk is staffed by students
for students; the university also actively
encourages these employees to come from
all different degree disciplines, not just
Computing Science. However, developing
fresh talent takes time. Businesses need to
engage with the government and education
system in order to motivate young people to
move into the digital space, but more short-
term action is required.
IT and security are increasingly moving
closer together and evolving, so technical
staff need to have flexible skills that
allow them to evolve as technology does.
Companies can also encourage a more
diverse pool of staff into technology roles
by creating new job titles and bringing in
compensation structures to encourage tech
employees to actively drive an increase in
business efficiency. Furthermore, in order
to encourage new hires, digital roles should
be re-positioned as stepping stones to
www.intelligentcio.com
leadership. As businesses increasingly rely
on technology, the transition from CIO and
CISO to CEO should be welcomed.
Another important point is that technical
departments are massively under-using
50% of the population. A recent report
from Forrester about recruiting women
in cybersecurity argued that traditional
recruitment fails to target and attract
women because of long-standing biases.
Recruiters often limit the applicant pool
by focusing on candidates with military
“
WE’RE NOT GOING
TO SOLVE THE
DIGITAL SKILLS
SHORTAGE IN
A DAY, BUT
FORWARD-
THINKING
ORGANISATIONS
CAN PROPEL
THEMSELVES
BY EVOLVING
THEIR INTERNAL
CULTURES AND
APPLYING MORE
PRACTICAL
MEASURES.
backgrounds and by using military jargon
to describe cybersecurity roles. More needs
to be done to develop a defined strategy
to recruit women and this needs to be
supported by welcoming an internal culture
which retains employees for the long term.
Technology can go a long way in helping
under-resourced technical teams to do
their jobs to the best of their ability. For
example, automated endpoint detection
and response (EDRS) solutions can ‘cut
down the noise’ produced by the volume
of cyberattacks that hit an organisation
every day. If automated EDRS is dealing
with more trivial threats, security teams can
better use their staff to proactively defend
against more complex threats.
We’re not going to solve the digital skills
shortage in a day, but forward-thinking
organisations can propel themselves by
evolving their internal cultures and applying
more practical measures immediately.
Businesses need to inject ambition into
technical roles, encourage women to join
their teams and embrace the power of
technology to help them succeed in our
increasingly digital world. n
INTELLIGENTCIO
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