All Partners

MTU – CyberSkills
IRELAND

Building Ireland’s cybersecurity skills

Cyber Skills and Cyber Ireland represent MTU as partners in Digital4Security to address the cyber security skills gap affecting European industries and public institutions. Cyber Skills is a strategic response to the shortage of cyber security professionals worldwide, and a commitment to boost Ireland’s cyber security capabilities – positioning the country at the forefront of global cyber security efforts.

The initiative received €8.1 million in funding under the Higher Education Authority’s Human Capital Initiative (HCI) Pillar 3 scheme. Cyber Skills is a collaboration between MTU, University of Limerick, and Technological University Dublin. Its range of micro-credentials and academic pathways offers learners multiple options to enhance their careers. With flexible learning paths and a strong emphasis on work-based learning, learners gain both theoretical knowledge and practical, real-world skills – making them ready for the workplace.

Our contribution

to the Digital4Security project

Cyber Skills and Cyber Ireland at MTU, along with other Irish entities, are integral to the Digital4Security project.

Our specific responsibilities include:

Needs Analysis and Programme Design: Creating an employability strategy that aligns with the current market requirements.
Programme Rollout and Delivery: This includes mentoring and supporting students through industry experts, organising networking events, guest lectures, and a Work-Based Learning and Employability Programme.
Dissemination: This helps in student recruitment and in promoting an industry and education campaign to encourage broad adoption of the programme.

Our mission

Cyber security skills are in high demand. Data from Cyber Ireland shows the industry is growing at 10% per annum and it forecasts that the sector will need to recruit more than 1,000 extra workers per year between now and 2030. ISC2, an international security training provider, found that 67% of organisations say they’re short of skilled staff to fill these roles.

Cyber Skills mission is to create innovative, enterprise focused and research informed cybersecurity courses through meaningful collaboration to empower learners to design their own courses and take their own pathways, enabling them to reskill and upskill to address the cyber security skills gap. Our collaboration with Digital4Security will help us to channel a significant number of graduates into roles identified within the European Cyber Security Skills Framework (ECSF) and support our mission to reskill and upskill individuals across various professional levels to enhance cyber security infrastructure and develop effective incident management strategies.