TechVets Teaching Veterans About the Cyber Security Trade

For many veterans, the prospect of finding a good job is difficult when leaving the service as many of their skills don’t translate into the private sector.

Finally, something is being done about matching the skillsets of military veterans with technology and the skills shortage in cybersecurity.

In the past 12 months alone, there have been 15,000 service leavers adding up to a total 908,000 working age veterans in the UK of whom 220,000  are unemployed and inactive. Moreover, only 4% of veterans work in ICT, a figure that is 20% less than non-veterans.

This imbalance is matched by the drastic skills shortage in UK cybersecurity. According to a report by ESG and ISSA, 45% of organizations claim to have a problematic shortage of cybersecurity skills, 70% of cybersecurity professionals say the cybersecurity skills shortage has had an impact on their organization and 22% said their cybersecurity team was not large enough for the size of their organization.

A new social enterprise TechVets was recently launched in the UK with ths support of veteran influencers, investors and tech business leaders.

The not-for-profit initiative provides a bridge for veterans and service leavers into cyber security and technology to foster greater dialogue and creating connections between veterans and the technology and cyber security sectors, and to highlight the strong mutual benefits.

TechVets wants to support veterans and service leavers from Defence who would like to build on their transferable skills and develop new ones to operate and work in technology and cybersecurity sectors.

As well as providing free cyber-security training, TechVets is working with industry partners to secure employment for their cohort. TechVets will take no recruitment fees for this service.

TechVets will work closely with the UK government, the MOD’s the Career Transition Partnership, military charities, and industry champions to build the UK’s tech and cyber sectors with the unrealised human potential of the UK veteran community.

Those UK veterans and service leaders  interested in joining the not-for-profits TechVets, can register at TechVets.co if they would like to join the first cohort for cyber training or get advice on how their experience and skillsets would be most valued.

This program in the UK relies on the veterans known qualities in leadership, problem-solving and crisis management that were forged in the military. U.S. companies should take note.

To read the entire article from Forbes, click here: