How to get free cybersecurity training from industry leader IBM

Fortune | Education

Sydney Lake

July 28, 2022

The cybersecurity industry is ripe for an influx of new professionals entering the field. In fact, there are nearly three-quarters of a million cybersecurity positions left to be filled, according to a report by Emsi Burning Glass (now Lightcast), a market research company.

And every year that demand continues to climb. Worldwide, the number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs jumped 350% between 2013 and 2021, from 1 million to 3.5 million, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. While there are more than enough positions to be filled, there aren’t nearly enough qualified personnel to fill them.

Field jobs require specific training—whether it comes from certification programs, online courses, master’s degrees in cybersecurity, or other company training programs. A prime example of a company focused on growing a pipeline of cybersecurity talent is IBM, the Fortune 500 IT-management and hardware company.

In August 2021, IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna announced a commitment to train more than 150,000 people in cybersecurity skills during the next three years as cybercrime continues to rise.

“Businesses and government share a collective responsibility to collaborate on preventing cyberattacks that could have a devastating impact or prompt national or global crises,” Krishna wrote in a statement. “We must join forces now to shore up the security of the critical infrastructure that keeps our society functioning.”

In conjunction with the White House’s National Cyber Workforce and Education Summit held in mid-July, IBM also announced the creation of more talent pipelines for cybersecurity jobs, including its new Cybersecurity Leadership Centers with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority serving institutions. IBM is also partnering with the American Council on Education to translate cybersecurity apprenticeships to college credits.

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