Veterans of the Scottish Armed Forces to Become Ethical Hackers
Armed Force veterans in Scotland are taking part in an eight-week course that is a pilot program. This pilot program is to teach veterans some newer technical skills and address the shortage of trained cybersecurity professionals in the field.
The program being launched is an ethical hacking program that is being released as a part of Cyber Scotland Week. This is being held by Skills Development Scotland, SaluteMyJob, tech startup Skillzminer IBM, and Abertay University.
Additional support is being rendered by the Scottish Business Resilience Centre and the Veterans Scotland charity.
Abertay University held an introductory course at the beginning of February. The course was attended by 30 ex-members of the armed forces. This expanded the SaluteMyJob’s Cyber Skillsbuild program, which now retains more than 350 veterans to date. Skills Development Scotland is assisting with the project by contributing to additional training.
SaluteMyJob was set up to offer recruitment, consulting, and training to employers looking to hire ex-military and service people in the field of security. It helps planning and structured programs that are aimed to increase the desire for veterans as employees, consultants, and contractors.
Research conducted by Skills Development Scotland showed that there are typically 13,000 jobs per annum available in Scotland’s digital sector. Security is the biggest and fastest-growing area in that category.
This program has been closely aligned with the government’s Cyber Resilience Action Plan for Learning and Skills. This was put into action in 2018 to develop cyber resilience and build a base of security professionals within the country.
The generalization is that the cyber field is a deeply technical one, but the reality is that most of the military personnel are trained with the knowledge and skills to transition into roles that are included in the cybersecurity field.
