Microsoft partners with AustCyber to launch cybersecurity traineeship program

Microsoft is partnering with AustCyber to launch a new cybersecurity traineeship program.

The program aims to support approximately 200 participants into a cyber career from 2021 to 2024. The partnership has recently successfully secured additional funding from the Commonwealth government's Cyber Security Skills Partnership Innovation Fund, which should help increase the pipeline of a diverse range of candidates entering the cyber industry.

There are currently 26,500 workers employed across the sector, according to the 2020 update to Australia's Cyber Security Sector Competitiveness Plan. And around 7,000 more cybersecurity workers will be needed across all industries nationwide by 2024.

"Microsoft and AustCyber are working nationally through Austcyber's National Network of Nodes with group training providers, industry micro-credential trainers, educational institutions, and large and small cybersecurity industry stakeholders to develop Australia's next generation of cyber talent," says AustCyber CEO, Michelle Price.

"This program will have a strong focus on diversity, and it commences with a cyber skills boot camp enabling participants from diverse backgrounds to enter the cyber industry, including women, veterans, First Nations people, neurologically diverse people, displaced workers, and other minority groups.

"The training will be delivered through a selection of training providers to provide flexibility of training locations and establish a baseline level of skills to facilitate entry into the Certificate IV in Cyber Security.

"This vocational qualification will be bolstered with vendor and industry micro-credentials for applicable real-world skills. By developing this as a paid traineeship, our cyber trainees will earn whilst they learn, developing vital on-the-job skills in their employment with a cohort of employment partners," she says.

She says trainees will be matched with an employer from a range of AustCyber and Microsoft's ecosystems of employment collaborators, from cyber SMEs to large organisations. To gain valuable on-the-job experience and the opportunity to fast-track post-graduation employment with the same employer.

"We're proud to be working with AustCyber on this initiative," says Microsoft Australia chief security officer, Mark Anderson.

"It's vitally important we create career pathways to fast-track people into cyber careers, and we know that this traineeship model is a successful way of doing just that, having supported 250 Australians to enter cloud computing careers since 2020 through a similar program.

"Microsoft is incredibly focused on increasing the diversity of our technology workforce, and it's exciting to be able to offer people a bridge into cyber careers through a free boot camp course and this cyber traineeship," he says.