Part of CONNECT University Autumn School series

The cybersecurity threat landscape has evolved greatly in the past years. Threat actors increase their capabilities and novel, hybrid and emerging threats, such as the use of bots and techniques based on artificial intelligence, are emerging.  Europe’s competitiveness and growth heavily depend on the development and uptake of strategic digital technologies (e.g. 5G, cloud).

Guaranteeing the EU’s security, growth and competitiveness widely relies on the Union’s most valuable asset: its people.  A skilled cybersecurity workforce is needed in order to prevent, detect, deter and defend the EU, and to remain in a position to deliver key advanced technologies in a global setting. 
However, in 2022, the shortage of cybersecurity professionals in the European Union ranged between 260,000 and 500,000, and women represented only 20% of all cybersecurity graduates. 
Employers’ hesitancy to invest in human capital, looking for already trained and experienced workforce, further contributes to constraining the labour market. This shortage affects not only private organisations but also public administrations.

While education and training and building career pathways are necessary to enhance the supply side of the labour market, the role of the demand side in training its workforce and adapting to its evolution is currently underestimated. Industry and public employers lack common fora and places to pool ideas on how to best train the workforce and to address how to better assess skills, especially during the recruitment process. The most in-demand hard skills may be cybersecurity related, such as software development or cloud computing, but transversal skills are still unjustifiably disregarded. Critical thinking and analysis, problem-solving and self-management are skill groups which are more demanded by employers and are rising in prominence in the lead up to 2025 .

This is why in April 2023, the Commission adopted the Communication on a Cybersecurity Skills Academy, a policy initiative which aims at bringing together existing initiatives on cyber skills and improve their coordination, with a view to bridging the cybersecurity talent gap and boosting competitiveness, growth and resilience in the EU. 
In the face of the shortage, how do companies and public administrations adapt their human resources strategies and approaches to ensure recruitment, development and retention of cybersecurity specialists? How can employers ensure candidates and employees have the necessary hard and transversal skills to perform their functions?

Join this session to hear how industry, a national, and an EU public administration are trying to tackle the human resources gap hitting cybersecurity professions! 
 

Keynote speech : Despina Spanou, Head of Cabinet, Vice-President Mr. Margaritis Schinas, European Commission

Panellists:

• Stefano Bordi, Cyber & Security Academy Director, Leonardo
• Héctor Laiz Ibáñez, National Coordination Centre of Spain (NCC-ES), National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE), Spain 
• John Clarke, Vice President, Cybersecurity, Workday
• Grzegorz Minczakiewicz, Director for Cybersecurity, DG DIGIT.S, European Commission

Closing remarks: Miguel González-Sancho Bodero, Head of Unit ‘Cybersecurity Technology and Capacity Building’, DG CONNECT.H1 , European Commission

Moderator: Anne-Sophie Diehl , Policy Officer, DG CONNECT.H1, European Commission