Great insight via Codebook – April 26, 2018 – Axios  “The cybersecurity skills shortage is dire — one commonly cited estimate predicts 3.5 million unfilled jobs worldwide by 2021. Kevin Simzer, chief operating officer of cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, believes the most economical solution might be to train way more employees than his company needs —knowing that most will go to competitors.

“The lack of available talent leaves security companies recruiting employees from rivals and offering them huge raises. “That’s not sustainable,” Simzer said.

“The big picture: The skills shortage is not hypothetical. Cybersecurity is a field of growing demand, yet it hit 0% unemployment in 2016. And while most of the new jobs will not be the highest-skilled positions — the type that cybersecurity specialists, like Trend Micro, will be concerned about filling — the demand for lower skilled posts will inflate salaries and deplete talent pools.

“Solution — train everybody: To fill its roster, Trend Micro offers a fully-paid three month bootcamp to 200 20-somethings with no cybersecurity experience. By design, only one in five will win a role in the company. The rest leave with a certificate that has proven to be a boon to employment elsewhere.

“According to Simzer, it’s cheaper, over time, for Trend Micro to train all those extra people and then cherry-pick its hires than to poach talent or compete for recent grads.

“Who to target: A lot of people with no cybersecurity background join the program. Simzer says that the company targets people who’ve had some other great success in life, academic or otherwise — they’re likely to be self-motivated: “We had an Olympic swimmer who was really successful. He won a bronze.”

• Continuous self-evaluation and improvement could be critical outside of the classroom. Cybersecurity is a rapidly changing space, requiring on-the-job learning as new threats develop.

“Exportable solution: Simzer argues the train-everyone approach could remedy cybersecurity shortages even outside specialist firms. “We don’t have a patent on it. And it could definitely work for Acme Corp,” he says.

Source: Codebook – April 26, 2018 – Axios