The Australian Information Security Association (AISA) is calling on the federal government to review cyber security courses in the higher education sector as a key component of its planned national cyber security strategy. 

“Currently there is no oversight into the curriculum of our education sector’s cyber security degrees and courses. Some institutions simply add cyber units to IT degrees and brand them as cyber security courses,” AISA Chair Damien Manuel said. 

“This isn’t going to prepare our next generation of cyber security specialists to deal with an ever-changing threat environment. Students need courses to be updated on a yearly basis rather than the typical 4-to-5-year cycle.” 

Mr Manuel states that the federal government has a role to play in ensuring that cyber security courses that are relevant to the industry and able to place job-ready cyber professionals upon graduation. 

The Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security Clare O’Neil scrapped the previous Government’s 2020 AU$1.7 billion ten-year Cyber Security Strategy, recasting it with a greater focus on building sovereign cyber-capabilities and workforce skills. 

While Australia’s education sector has recognised this shortage and is launching new cyber security degrees and courses, AISA is calling for urgent government direction to ensure their courses are fit-for-purpose and producing job-ready cyber professionals with clear pathways to employment. 

“Private enterprise is currently filling the education shortfalls by creating their own specialist cyber training courses to fast-track talent from outside the cyber security sector into these specialist roles,” Mr Manuel said. 

“While this is one part of the solution, a holistic education approach is urgently required. One that meets and delivers the skillset required by industry and ensures students have pathways into the various cyber security roles available in industry and government. Greater collaboration and integration is needed between Universities, TAFEs, and industry.” 

Mr Manuel also said that they would welcome tax incentives that will support businesses in taking on and training cyber graduates with an IT background. 

“I would love to see a system like that expanded to enable people in other fields to cross over and establish a career in cyber security,” he said.  

“Imagine the benefits of having cyber security professionals with backgrounds in law, policy, humanities, sciences and psychology.” 

As the nationally recognised not-for-profit organisation and charity, AISA states that it would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with the federal government on the best approach to developing a practical and agile cyber security strategy. 

“We stand ready to support the Government to develop cyber security as a sovereign capability, building the capacity of professionals in Australia,” Mr Manuel said. 

“The recasting of the cyber security strategy presents the opportunity to review the education sector and provide much-needed direction and governance to ensure we are rising to meet this challenge.” 

Source: AISA media release. Content has been edited for style and length.

Eliza Sayon

Website | + posts

Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

• Developing an effective data ecosystem
• The journey of building an ecosystem through data
• NZ government strengthens data privacy laws against third parties
• eSafety Commissioner issues legal notice against Twitter