The requirements for better cyber security are increasing. At the same time, the lack of cyber skills is acute. In order to accelerate the supply of skills, The Upskill Company starts a collaboration with Microsoft Sweden and retrains people with the right potential through intensive training.
– There is so much shortage of people in cyber security today that the traditional ways of training and recruiting are not enough. To meet the needs, we need to think in new ways in terms of learning, skills and who is suitable for what. By testing logical ability, motivation and certain personal characteristics, we can find people suitable for this type of work, regardless of their previous background. That’s what Gabriel Fogelsjöö, CEO of The Upskill Company, says.
The Upskill Company and Microsoft Sweden’s investment aims to retrain people who currently work in other industries but are interested in working with cyber security. The first round is planned to begin at the beginning of 2023 and will last for just over twelve weeks. During the course, participants will learn the fundamentals of SecOps with a focus on Sentinel and Defender – programs used to find, deter, investigate and act on cyber threats. The training content will cover both concrete needs today and what will be needed on a broad front in the future.
– Forecasts show that in Sweden we will have a shortage of 70,000 professionals in the tech industry in the coming years, including many in cyber security. The major shortcoming is a serious threat to Sweden’s digitization journey – not least because security is an important prerequisite in that journey. At Microsoft Sweden, we are passionate about these types of issues, which is why it is very gratifying that we are now joining hands with The Upskill Company to counteract the upcoming shortage, says Thomas Floberg, vice president and chief operating officer of Microsoft Sweden.
The training is free of charge for the participants and they are offered a salary during the study period. After the training, everyone is employed as a consultant at The Upskill Company and begins their assignments with companies that after one year will be offered the opportunity to take them on as employees. Recruitment for the project will start in the fall and training will start in early 2023. A second training start is planned later in the spring of 2023 and a third in the fall of 2023.