CSU’s 2018 Cyber Security Enrolments up by nearly 300 per cent

IT Graduates studying for Masters degrees looking to cash in on booming demand for cyber security skills.

MELBOURNE: Thursday, 1 February 2018 - IT Masters, an industry-based organisation that partners with Charles Sturt University (CSU) to provide online Masters degrees to IT professionals has experienced a 270 per cent increase year-on-year in enrolments for its Cyber Security course.

According to Martin Hale, director of IT Masters, enrolments for CSU’s “Masters degree in Cyber Security” course continue to climb daily as its Session One intake closing date (February 16) looms.

“By the time 2018 enrolments are closed, we may well have more than four times the number of Cyber security applicants than we had last year,” Hale said. “We have not seen this type of surge in IT enrolments since the Dot Com boom in the late 1990s.

“As was the case back then, demand is being driven by the tremendous employment opportunities that are available at present for graduates with skills in cyber security.”

Hale said that the skills shortage in this area well-documented. Cisco estimates there are more than 1 million unfilled jobs worldwide.

“IT professionals looking to take their careers to the next level are targeting cyber security as a fast-track to vocational advancement and it makes sense too,” Hale said. “Data from the 2016 Census showed that while average wage growth across the community has been very slow, ICT Security Specialists have benefited greatly from an undersupply of skilled workers with an impressive 31 per cent rise in the five years from 2011 to 2016.

“The latest Census survey showed average wages in this category have risen to $111,124 and, in the current state of undersupply for cyber security skills, it is fair to assume that those income growth figures are being exceeded in the present.”

A recent report from the Australian Cyber Security Growth Network projects that over the next decade the Australian cyber security industry could triple in size, with revenues rising to $6 billion by 2026, from just over $2 billion today.

Hale said that the dramatic increase in demand for cyber security skills and experience has been good for CSU cyber security graduates most of whom are existing IT professionals and law enforcement officers.

“Demand for suitable skilled and certified cyber security operatives is rampant,” Hale said. “We are hearing reports of our students winning cyber Security appointments while they are still doing their courses.

“Meanwhile, according to a recently published ESG/ISSA research report titled The Life and Times of Cybersecurity Professionals, 49 per cent of cybersecurity professionals are solicited to consider other cybersecurity jobs by various types of recruiters at least once per week.

“CSU has attracted high quality cyber security lecturers such as world renowned terrorism expert Richard Steinnon and major investigations leader, Graham Sunderland to ensure that students will get the best possible outcomes from their studies.”

CSU’s cyber security courses are conducted via the university’s award-winning distance learning platform with a combination of webcast lectures, interactive online courseware, and collaborative community engagement. Session One intakes close on February 16 with the course beginning shortly thereafter.

An information webinar on the CSU Cyber Security course is available on YouTube.

For more information:

Gerard Norsa - Schmooze Communications - gerard@schmooze.com.au - 0427 563 442

Martin Hale - IT Masters - martin.hale@itmasters.com.au - 0419 322 844

ABOUT IT MASTERS:

IT Masters is an industry-based training organisation that has partnered with Charles Sturt University to:

• Promote Charles Sturt University’s unique range of industry-based Masters degrees to the IT industry,
• Support students studying their industry certification-based subjects, and
• Research and identify opportunities to further expand the range of Masters programs.

Their first combined Master degree was launched in 2002. Since 2009 Charles Sturt University has had the largest number of domestic postgraduate IT students of any Australian university with over 7,000 enrolments so far.