The problem:

Cyber Security is one of the most sought-after skills in the market today. Understandably with the uptick in the digital technologies and all things digital across every aspect of our day-to-day life, Cyber Security and awareness has become a critical component to protect ourselves and our organizations from fraudsters and organized hacker groups.

With the competition heating up for cyber security skills in tier 1 and tier 2 cities, the remunerations have started skyrocketing and there is a dearth of good quality cyber security professionals at affordable salaries for organizations. On the other hand, there are more and more qualified engineers who graduate out of engineering colleges, end up in jobs that do not leverage either their engineering skills or their problem-solving skills.

Innovative solution

While many organizations such as ours who hire Cyber Security professionals in large numbers have been fighting the battle in the job market for good talent, we embarked on a journey to find an innovative solution to address the Cyber Security skill gap issue. This journey led us to a non-profit organization iAspire Mind Foundation Mind Foundation that was looking to address cyber security skill gap issues by upskilling engineering students coming from humble backgrounds and towns where they do not get the opportunity to flourish. Next, we wanted a good campus to execute the Cyber Security training program and our search ended with Skill Development Institute, Bhubaneswar (SDI-B), a not-for-profit Society involved in ‘skilling unemployed youth and enhancing livelihoods’.  iAspire Mind Foundation needed an industry partner who would provide these students with assured job after completing their training. Deloitte willingly assumed the role of industry partner and agreed to contribute towards refining the training curriculum as per industry needs.

Training program

The training program was designed to be 6-month residential program for the students at SDI-B. SDI-B provided all the required infrastructure including high-end computers, subsidized boarding, and lodging facilities at their training campus in Bhubaneshwar. The training program constituted 6 days-a-week with first 2 days for theory and 2 days of practical application on each of the cyber topics in the curriculum followed by assessment on the 5th day on the same topic to monitor the progress of the students. Saturdays were generally an industry connect day which included Cyber Security leaders in the industry mentoring the students in person or thru’ video conference by sharing their latest industry views, experiences, and their growth paths. Deloitte also conducted a structured soft skills training program on Saturday along with mentoring from Cyber Security leaders from Deloitte. After 6 months the students are currently trained and have cleared the industry certification from NASSCOM on Cyber security and ready to join Deloitte. We are very thrilled to welcome them shortly as they prepare for final days of their transition from being a student to a cyber security professional. Deloitte, being a people-friendly organisation and true to our values of impacting our communities, these students will be offered the role of Senior Analysts as their starting designation and will not have any kind of bond or lock-in period. In our own way, we would like to provide the opportunity for bright young Indians in search of the start which could shape not only their career and life but also their family’s.