The EU Cybersecurity Skills Academy : A silver bullet to address the cyber security skills gap in the European Union?

Abstract

The economic, social and security imperative of addressing the cyber security skills gap, further exacerbated by recent crises and the evolving nature of cyber threats, is now widely acknowledged as a key priority to ensure the resilience of our digital economies and societies. This paper explores the potential of the proposed EU Cybersecurity Skills Academy, introduced by the European Commission (EC) as a flagship of the European Year of Skills in April 2023, to address this challenge in the European Union (EU). With an increasing shortage of cyber security professionals, the paper highlights the expected upsurge in demand for cyber security experts in the face of new EU cyber security legislation. The diversity of the expertise required, especially in non-technical fields, poses a unique challenge. At the same time, existing initiatives at both national and EU levels lack coordination and synergy, hindering their impact on the EU job market. This paper outlines how the EU Cybersecurity Skills Academy can offer a comprehensive solution to this challenge by providing a one-stop shop for cyber security training and funding offers across Europe and addressing the mismatch between available skills and market needs. The Academy’s pillars, which cover knowledge generation and training, stakeholder involvement, funding and progress measurement, are further detailed. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for the EU cyber security ecosystem in order to help make this initiative a success and a potential model for replication in other parts of the world.