July 5, 2021

UOW receives funding for cyber academy partnership

Program to create hundreds of new jobs for cyber professionals

The University of Wollongong (UOW) has secured significant funding from the NSW Department of Education to support the development of the NSW Cyber Academy.

NSW Cyber Academy is a partnership between UOW, Deloitte and TAFE NSW established in 2020 with support from the NSW and Federal governments, as well as schools, industry, InvestmentNSW, CyberNSW and AusCyber.

The three partnering organisations have been working together for 12 months to create a Professional Cyber Security Program (Higher Education) that focusses on creating a unique fit-for-purpose post-school cyber security training program that will create hundreds of new jobs in NSW for cyber professionals.

The program incorporates an articulated study program from TAFE NSW to UOW while students are concurrently employed by industry (e.g., Deloitte) or the NSW government.

As a tailored cyber security course, the program promotes an increase in the availability and quality of cyber security professionals, while ensuring a wide participation and access to all equity groups.

The partnership between industry and the three levels of education (schools, TAFE NSW and UOW) provides an opportunity for improved collaboration between industry and education, building the pipeline of skilled professionals for the future.

Future Education Division and the School of Computing and Information Technology in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences (EIS) are leading this project for UOW.

The program has been designed to embed both the technical skills, and the assessment and quantification of human capabilities to produce effective cyber security professionals.

Core to the program will also be a focus on student wellbeing, academic achievement, and student equity, as well as developing an employable workforce. The long-term outcome is the creation of a focused equitable, diverse, well trained, and adaptable future cyber security workforce for NSW.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), Professor Theo Farrell, said: “UOW is delighted by our partnership with Deloitte and TAFE NSW, resulting in this highly innovative cybersecurity program that will create exciting career opportunities for our students. The NSW Cyber Academy will address a critical workforce need and make an important contribution to this vital area of Australian resilience and security.”