Global training expertise now available to European companies scrambling to address the new cyber security skills gap

Red Education has announced its expansion into Europe, with senior training instructor hires and European course schedules now available in the region.

Red Education is a multi-award-winning training organisation, with training hubs across ANZ, ASIA, SAARC, the Americas and now Europe. More than 50 Red Education instructors across multiple regions and time zones deliver technical training programs to the IT community in many different languages.

“Strategically Europe was the last bastion we needed to add to our growing and expanding business. We now cover all continents, providing a one-stop cyber security training shop for enterprise and global service integrators. Global sales require truly global training and support,” said Mike Baird, Managing Director at Red Education.

“Red Education is globally renowned for providing outstanding IT training experiences and we are excited to bring these experiences to Europe, disrupting the traditional IT training model. We support close to twenty major vendor technologies across the full cyber security spectrum, from the firewall, DNS, AP I.D., hyper-convergence, dashboard reporting and now cloud services,” said Baird.

Closing the new skills gap threatening European companies

The need for specialist cyber security training has become critical and urgent, as European organisations scramble to address the new IT skills gap that has arisen from the rapid transition from old to new technologies.

“A year ago, the world shut down with the global pandemic and new technologies exploded with five years of growth taking place in just 12 months,” said Baird.

“This has put pressure on businesses to implement cyber security solutions quickly, whilst ensuring best practice is adopted in the rollout and management phases. In an era of zero trust, we are seeing on-premise solutions transition to either a hybrid or full cloud experience. In the rush to transition, we are continually being asked to come in and assist local and enterprise companies to triage mistakes in their implementations, sadly after breaches have occurred. Companies cannot afford to cut corners on this. The risks are too high as we have seen so many cyber security-related incidents this past year.”

Cyber security underpins business profitability and continuity

“At the board level, the importance of cyber security has ratcheted up tenfold in the past 12 months. It’s gone from a bothersome expense on the P&L to a critically important platform that underpins business profitability and continuity. This has thrust IT professionals smack in front of C-Suite and Board Committees.

It’s vitally important that they now can articulate, and sell their concepts, to impress upon the leaders of these organisations the importance of their ideas and strategies. Like it or not, interpersonal skills are a must-have post-COVID if you wish to stay relevant,” said Baird.

If you bought a Lamborgini, would you trust an unlicensed driver?

Baird quotes statistics from ITB, about the ANZ region. “A recent survey from Deloitte and RMIT Online showed that out of 600 Australian businesses, surveyed, 88% say it’s difficult to find skilled employees. While those businesses are doing what they can to address skill shortages, many (49%) rely on attracting new employees – but only 45% are focusing on internal training and education.”

“When millions of dollars are at risk, why does technical training rank so low on the business spectrum? It’s understandable during Covid to review all internal costs. We followed this same process as every other business. However, training cannot be one of those investments to be cut from the P&L.”

“If you purchased a Lamborghini, would you entrust an unlicensed driver behind the wheel? I doubt it. So why is it that certified training is the first to be cut out of your budgets? It should be seen as essential investment, not a cost.”

“Board room executives must change their priorities. Training deserves equally as much attention as the new technologies it supports. And they must insist that certified trained employees are skilled up in preparation for large organisational change. The cybersecurity RISKS are too large to shave a percentage point off the bottom line.”

The era of multiple technologies and new skill sets

According to Baird, companies can no longer afford to have staff specialise in only one technology. They must now be experienced across several vendor technologies and the interplay between these solutions. Therefore, we are seeing an explosion across Agility, Firewall, Data Management and Analysis, DevSecOps, Cloud, Automation, Threat Hunting and now also Interpersonal Skills training.

Employees smart enough to adapt and upskill earn more than USD 10,000 per annum more than their single vendor certified counterpart. Red Education has built a reputation for their depth of knowledge and ability to transfer that knowledge to the student. “We do this with gifted trainers, an exceptional delivery method, and immersive labs to kinesthetically achieve quick adoption and implementation of that knowledge,” said Baird.

“We are proud to support our European customers and we have just started to upload schedules dates and courses. Interested participants should nominate their interest, and look forward to training with the best technical training organisation on the planet.”