PAULA LECA from Glasgow Science Centre’s STEM Futures programme explains why Scotland needs more cyber sleuths

ALL that time your teenager has been spending on their computer during lockdown isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They could be honing their career skills.

Scotland has been world famous for its industries: shipbuilding, oil and gas, textiles, whisky and more over the years. As industries rose and fell, so too did the jobs and training available for young people.

This year, Scotland is embracing a new industry that we’re becoming world leaders in: cyber security.

According to a new report from tech industry body ScotlandIS, Scotland’s cyber security sector is thriving and is an internationally-recognised hub for cyber and tech skills. Around 230 cyber companies have a presence here and many are home grown: almost half were founded or are headquartered in Scotland.

Seven Scottish universities now offer cyber security degrees and the number of undergraduates taking cyber-related courses has doubled from 200 to 400 between 2014 and 2019.

Cyber security, or information technology security, refers to how we reduce the risk of being affected by cybercrime. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we work and live, with many of us spending more time online.

This has raised the importance of cyber security even more as hackers see more opportunities for cybercrime.

The total number of cyber incidents over this year has increased by a fifth compared to the annual average, and 46% of UK businesses and charities reported a cyber attack last year.

All this has meant that the cyber security revolution is here to stay and will offer new opportunities for young people in Scotland. Glasgow Science Centre is making sure young people in Glasgow and beyond are ready and have the skills they need to join this growing industry.

Cyber Scotland Week 2021

Our STEM Futures programme funded by the JP Morgan Foundation has joined forces with leading tech giant IBM to help support young people while they are still at school to better equip them for jobs in this industry.

This week, as part of Cyber Scotland Week 2021, we ran a series of events with secondary schools in Scotland.

The pupils took part in a workshop where they had to stop a cyber attack at a airport: a high risk scenario that helped them learn how to be cyber aware while finding out about careers in this field.

It turns out more young people want to help foil cyber attacks than we bargained for, we’ve had to extend the session by another week to fit in all the schools.

One of our sessions had more than 1200 young people booked in from 40 schools.

Our partnership with IBM means we’ll be able to offer some pupils industry-recognised work experience, and we’re also planning to help teachers become more confident talking to pupils about cyber security.

Routes into cyber security

Our STEM Futures programme is one route for young people in Glasgow and the rest of Scotland, but there are many more. A number of tech companies in Glasgow offer graduate level apprenticeships that provides a degree, industry experience and a starting salary of £19,000 per year – and teenagers can join straight from school.

STEM Futures

The technology sector is one of the areas STEM Futures is working on and we’ll be working with other sectors such as engineering, healthcare science and construction to give the young people of Scotland the opportunity to explore a career in the industries of the future.