Cybersecurity skill development through degree programme relative to labor market

Abstract

In recent years cybersecurity has become global concern for all citizens. Importance of this research should not be underestimated considering the growth technological fields and cyber threats, that comes with it. Finland as part of the global world and member of the European Union must contribute to the global safety through its institutions. The objective of this thesis is to analyze how cybersecurity skills gained from degree program relates into Finnish labor market. The assignment for this research came through ECHO. This thesis is part of the ECHO project where Laurea university of applied science is partner institution. Research was completely done by using qualitative method. Since this was not developmental project secondary data and thematic analyze were used. Firstly, knowledge based was gathered about the topic. Secondly the two components degree programmes and labor market were analyzed. First component was analyzed by searching the existing cyber security degree programmes and skills derived from the curriculums. Focus group was university and university of applied science. Second component the labor market was analyzed by using four popular recruitment channels Linkedin, Duunitori,Oikeotie and Monster. Screening for the search engine was done by Cybersecurity as keyword, definition of recently graduated as requirement and country of Finland as region. Thirdly the results were presented. Research question was used in order to guide and help to navigate the research. Finally, the conclusion and recommendations were given. The results answered the research question by showing that there is the skill gap between skills gained from degree programme and skills demanded by the labor market. This thesis also argues that in most parts there is no equivalency between degree programmes and current labor market. Keywords: Cybersecurity, cyber skill, labor market, degree programme