Thirty individuals in the Greater Manchester and Lancashire region will receive free training and professional certification opportunities in advanced cybersecurity skills from technology industry trade association CompTIA through a new digital skills training initiative.
The cybersecurity training programme is supported by the Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund, a £3 million joint venture between the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and Lancashire Digital Skills Partnership (LDSP). The programme is the first of its kind in the UK.
The Cyber Ready North West programme is one of 14 skills-building projects awarded grants from the Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund earlier this month. More than 600 residents in Greater Manchester and Lancashire are expected to participate in the training .
CompTIA will prepare 30 candidates for cyber roles, such as entry level cyber security analysts. The free course is open to people in-work and has been developed to improve the diversity of the cyber talent pipeline by supporting returners to tech, low skilled, graduates, ex-armed forces, women, and BAME individuals.
Training will take place over six months. Along the way enrollees will have the opportunity to earn two industry-leading cybersecurity certifications – CompTIA Security+ and CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+).
“CompTIA is grateful to the Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund, the DCMS, GMCA and LDSP for their support of this critically-important skills initiative,” said Graham Hunter, CompTIA’s vice president for skills certification in EMEA.
“The volume of cyber threats has been elevated during the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting virtually every industry and increasing employers’ demand for trained and certified cybersecurity professionals, ” Hunter continued. “At the end of this training programme we will have prepared 30 new cyber professionals. More importantly, 30 local residents will have new career opportunities to look forward to.”
To submit an application, or to learn more about the programme, visit https://www.comptia.org/content/lp/cyber-ready.
The Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund was set up to address locally identified digital skills gaps and to support employers to recruit for hard to fill vacancies through specialist co-designed digital skills training. The Fast Track Fund works to support both Greater Manchester and Lancashire residents with accessible routes into better quality digital employment, specifically targeting under-represented groups in digital roles. It is designed to overcome the gap in funding for non-accredited training and create inclusive opportunities for groups of people that don’t currently have access to these digital opportunities.
CompTIA is the global leader in vendor-neutral technical education and certifications in skills ranging from IT support and networking to cybersecurity and cloud computing. Nearly 2.7 million CompTIA certifications have been awarded to technology professionals in 232 countries around the world. Visit https://www.comptia.org/certifications to learn more.
