Background and Project Content

According to NIST’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) there is a shortage of people having the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform tasks in cybersecurity at the state-of-the-art level. It needs knowledgeable and experienced people in technical and nontechnical roles who also understand that in this arena collaboration and communication are of vital importance. However, bridging the communication gaps among educators, researchers and users of information technologies to produce a workforce having the necessary interdisciplinary skills is a major challenge. Also, companies – particularly SMEs with less resources – not only need trainings for upskilling their employees but also support in assessing where they stand with regard to Cybersecurity.

Goals

Our international project team develops a framework for Vocational Education and Training (VET) that helps companies to identify (digital) knowledge gaps in the area of cyber security. Target groups are both professionals and non-professionals who are willing to learn about measures that enable higher standards of IT security and help to prevent cyber-attacks. As interdisciplinary training and mentoring programs have proven to yield great benefits in the field of cyber security, the focus of the project is on developing and testing digital interdisciplinary training programs (e.g., e-mentoring for SMEs and for VET).

Methods

Each partner institution aims to popularize the project ideas in its own country through public activities. To benefit from the experiences made by each project partner and to enable an exchange of knowledge and ideas, transnational meetings and multiplier events are organized. On top of that, each partner institution organizes an Interdisciplinary Training for SME employees and for teachers in Cyber Security. Online learning material allowing to acquire a higher certificate in interdisciplinary cyber security without having to spend long periods away from the workplace is developed and made available. The learning material encompasses a mentor handbook offering a guideline and best practise examples, videos on a YouTube channel, multimedia content and interactive exercises. The learning material and the mentor handbook are translated into all partner languages so that it can be delivered in multiple countries.