Amiosec attended a Cyber Opportunities Workshop hosted by Unlock Cyber and UWE Bristol in order to find out more about providing schools with cyber opportunities.
Date
8th July, 2019
Location
UWE Business School, Bristol
Description
The Cyber Security industry in the UK is growing and the demand for skilled Cyber Security professionals increases every year. Unfortunately, there are just not enough people to fill the jobs that are available. At Amiosec, we have experienced this firsthand – as we expand, it is getting ever harder to find the right people for the job. We realise that as an industry we need to start attracting more people to the sector, and getting them interested in engineering and technology in general, at a much younger age than we currently do. Amiosec are therefore committed to STEM outreach projects and activities, aiming to inspire a whole new generation of students to think about a career in STEM, and in particular Cyber Security.
Back in December last year, we attended a very successful “Do Cyber” event which aimed to inspire over 250 students to think about a career in cyber. We kept in touch with the organisers, who have now been renamed to “Unlock Cyber” (a joint initiative between employers and the University of the West of England to open up Cyber to young people) and we recently attended a workshop that they hosted in Bristol. This “Cyber Opportunities Workshop” brought together several schools and employers in the Bristol area, along with representatives from the NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre).
The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the following:
- how do we inspire students to consider their options in a digital career?
- how can employers get involved in providing practical teacher-led activities?
- what opportunities already exist in digital and cyber, locally and online?
- how can cyber and digital be incorporated into the curriculum framework, and what type of activities can be introduced into lesson plans?
- what support do teaching staff need to deliver these activities?
Amiosec had the chance to discuss these topics at length with teachers from Bristol schools and we found it was a very worthwhile conversation. We found out the type of experiences that really have an impact on students, what teachers currently incorporate in their curriculum with regards to cyber, and what issues schools sometimes face when trying to attend external events. Armed with this new knowledge, we are going to improve our future activities and events with schools to make sure that we can have the biggest impact possible for the students.
If you would like to find out more about the Unlock Cyber initiative, you can visit https://www.unlockcyber.com/
