North West School Girls Get An Intro To A Career In Cybersecurity

With a yawning cyber skills gap making it harder than ever to tackle relentless online attacks and much fewer women going into cyber jobs, 120 year 8 girls from the North West were at the DTX show at Manchester Central to drive a proactive response to both.

The girls from schools across the region gathered for an interactive workshop from CyberFirst Empower North West, delivered by IN4 Group on behalf of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) part of GCHQ –  to encourage them to pursue an interest in STEM subjects – key to a cyber career.

And there is no greater urgency for support. Over half the small businesses in Manchester suffered an online attack last year, according to the government’s Cyber Breaches Survey 2022, tracking ahead of the national average.

With attacks increasingly more difficult to detect, interest in cyber security is at an all-time high, but the available potential workforce needs to catch up with that demand. This is largely due to a lack of interest from young people, especially girls, who are seriously underrepresented.

In a bid to change the future the Year 8 girls got the chance to meet those working at the forefront of cyber security and technology from brands last week including IBM, KPMG UK, QinetiQ, BT, and Northrop Grumman, and think about a career pathway into the field.

Lauren Monks, Director of Careers Education Programmes at IN4 Group, commented: “If girls and young women can’t see it, they can’t be it – and that’s where initiatives like CyberFirst Schools & Colleges come in. It’s time to show girls what this industry’s all about – make it feel relevant to them and help them see it as a path they can follow.”

The girls enjoyed a range of fun, interactive sessions, live demos, hackathons, competitions, and a tour of the tech show, DTX.

DTX – Digital Transformation Expo and UCX, Unified Communications Expos were the anchor events of another successful Manchester Tech Week 2023 with over 155+ speakers, 100 exhibitors, and thousands of enterprise IT and digital professionals at Manchester Central and attending events across the city.

Natasha Taylor, Head of Research and Development for DTX said that there are already far more available jobs than there are people to fill them in the cybersecurity industry.

She said: “To avoid a future talent crisis, the cyber community needs to come together to support these types of initiatives. DTX is all about collaboration and inspiration and CyberFirst is a fantastic example of what happens when industry leaders work to inspire a new generation of women in the cybersecurity sector.

“By tackling real-life issues and bringing cyberspace to life, there is no doubt that these girls will be inspired to consider a role in tech for the future.”