Enhancing a cybersecurity curriculum development tool with a competence framework to meet industry needs for cybersecurity

Abstract

Current and emerging cybersecurity and computing professionals must manage their competencies and skills according to current job market needs, including formal education, professional certifications, and experience. Recent studies show that cybersecurity skills will be in high demand in the industry in the coming years. There is currently a significant gap between available jobs and the skills of suitable candidates, and existing software engineering and cybersecurity training has an important role to play in addressing this. This puts pressure on cybersecurity education providers, such as universities, to align with industry needs and develop the content of cybersecurity courses and curricula more systematically based on business needs. We asked 88 Finnish IT professionals working in software development and cybersecurity how much time they spend developing their skills in a year, what types of training they use, and what topics they need more training on, in order to understand the industry's security assurance training needs and the level of competence required. The solution to systematically develop cybersecurity course and curriculum content is to create a planning framework that combines the European Cybersecurity Taxonomy and the European Cybersecurity Skills Framework, including the e-Competence level, and university course content, to identify role-based training needs and gaps in course content.