Fortinet is Committed to Closing the Skills Gap in Cybersecurity
2014 saw the adoption of Resolution 69/145 by the UN General Assembly, designating the 15th of July as World Youth Skills Day annually. Concerns about a large number of young people globally who are neither working nor receiving career training were among the factors that led the General Assembly to establish this day. Unbelievably, 621 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are not enrolled in school, working, or receiving training, according to UN research.
It is crucial to provide young people with skills since those talents are crucial to the sustainability of our society. Each nation’s and organization’s ability to grow economically depends on its ability to consistently find qualified workers to maintain their strength, competitiveness, and prosperity. At the same time, inadequate training and resources will have long-lasting, severe repercussions, not the least of which is a decline in the level of living for future generations. As a global community, we must give the next generation options for respectable employment.
By tackling the severe skills gap we are experiencing, the cybersecurity sector has a unique potential to address the Youth Skills problem. Over 2.7 million cybersecurity specialists are currently unemployed, which has an impact on how well businesses can compete in the modern digital market. 80 percent of firms have experienced at least one breach, which they blame on a lack of cybersecurity knowledge or abilities, according to Fortinet’s 2022 Cybersecurity Skills Gap report.
Ways How Fortinet Increases Youth Cyber Awareness
The Fortinet Training Institute is dedicated to closing the skills gap across various audiences to have a sustainable and demonstrable global impact. To make a profession in cybersecurity accessible to everyone, including youth, it offers a wide range of cybersecurity training and certifications, career progression resources, and hiring possibilities. These consist of:
- Building youth cyber awareness: To raise youth cyber awareness, Fortinet produced “Cyber Safe: A Dog’s Guide to Internet Security” last year. Renee Tarun, Deputy CISO/Vice President of Information Security at Fortinet, co-authored the book, which educates kids on how to be secure online.
- Fortinet offers internship opportunities: As part of an internship program lasting several weeks, Fortinet offers new graduates and students the chance to work there. While being introduced to prospects in the dynamic and quickly expanding cyber business, interns receive practical experience.
- Free NSE Certification training is offered in the form of Fortinet’s self-paced Network Security Expert (NSE) Certification courses. It has eight levels of instruction, starting with cybersecurity fundamentals that everyone should know (NSE 1-3) and progressing gradually to advanced training for those who desire to gain advanced knowledge and skills.
- Fortinet’s Academic Partner Program gives over 400 academic institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 90 countries access to official training materials, technology, and exam vouchers. This program gives students the chance to earn an industry-recognized certification that will help them advance their careers. The objective of this initiative is to support, facilitate, and accelerate the development of the next generation of cybersecurity professionals by enabling participants—including those from underrepresented groups—to integrate high-quality technical cybersecurity training into their curricula.
- Education Outreach Program: Fortinet also collaborates with regional and international organizations to build career pathways in cyber for anyone interested in a range of positions in the industry, including underrepresented or disadvantaged people.
Increasing Cybersecurity Awareness with Fortinet
Understanding cybersecurity is becoming as important as always looking both ways when crossing the street. In today’s digital age, safeguarding data and people’s privacy has emerged as a crucial sustainability concern. Fortunately, there are currently millions of unfilled positions, making this industry not only necessary but also desirable from a financial and career development standpoint. Additionally, cybersecurity is an intellectually engaging field since, like technology, it is always growing.
As our lives increasingly mesh with cyberspace, it affects how we work, live, learn, play, travel, shop, and socialize. In this emerging digital world, cybersecurity professionals will soon be as important as police officers, firefighters, or doctors, making a career in cybersecurity not only financially rewarding but essential to our global society.
