Macquarie Government announces Fortem Australia partnership

Macquarie Government, part of Macquarie Telecom Group, has announced it has signed an agreement with Fortem Australia to become an Employment Partner.

The partnership will see Macquarie work with Fortem to reskill and recruit first responders into new careers. 

This involves transitioning them into cyber-security, cloud, and data centre security roles to support Macquarie's federal government customers, with a specific focus on national security and defence ICT.

The company will also develop and implement its own First Responder Recruitment Strategy, in partnership with Fortem, to identify opportunities for first responders within Macquarie Government.

Macquarie says it will also work directly with Fortem to support training opportunities, resources, networking events and other initiatives to enable first responders looking to switch careers and join the cyber and data security sector.

Founded in 2019, Fortem Australia supports the mental health and wellbeing of Australian first responders and their families. The not-for-profit organisation was co-founded by John Bale, also co-founder of Soldier On, a similar organisation that supports career transition opportunities for Australia's veterans.

"We're thrilled to welcome Macquarie to the Fortem family," he says.

"Partnering with the right companies to enable career transition for first responders and their families is central to our mission to provide specialised wellbeing and mental fitness support to first responder families. Macquarie has long championed Australian jobs and skills development and is a leading company in an industry where there is close values alignment with and strong mutual benefits for first responders."

The agreement comes following the Federal Government underscoring in the Budget the need for partnership with industry to tackle skills shortages in critical sectors. Cyber security is said to need a minimum of 17,000 new workers by 2026, according to AustCyber.

Aidan Tudehope, Managing Director, Macquarie Government, says the partnership with Fortem will help to grow Australia's sovereign cyber and defence talent to meet the Government's cyber security agenda.

"Australia needs to considerably increase its cyber posture right across the economy. To deliver this uplift we need, as a nation, to exponentially grow the available talent pool," he says. 

"The nature of cyber-security means we need to develop and nurture that talent through a sovereign lens – ensuring we have Australians learning and working to protect Australian data." 

Tudehope also says that many first responders have skills that are vital in the cyber industry, and Macquarie is committed to helping people transition and grow to create better overall outcomes.

"Australia's first responders are among the best in the world. Many of them possess the analytical, investigative, problem-solving, and pattern-recognition skills necessary for success in cyber, defence technology and related industries. In many cases, they already have the essential security clearances needed to work with sensitive data.

"We're committed to continuing our goal of uplifting Australian sovereign capability in cyber security and ICT, and this important partnership with Fortem will help us in that effort."