About the CYBERSTART project
Since Russian invasion of Ukraine have been emerged and also beforehand, Baltic countries have been facing high risk of cyber-attacks and new types of malicious cyber activities. Governmental services and individuals social media account is under attack by hackers. As cybersecurity threats continue to rise globally, there is an urgent need to tap into the full potential reskilling and upskilling in cybersecurity field.
The CyberStart project addresses a significant common territorial challenge the underrepresentation of woman in the cybersecurity workforce and their limited access to digital skills and employment opportunities. This challenge is intensify by the growing demand for cybersecurity professionals, with the global cybersecurity job gap projected to reach 3.5 million unfilled positions by 2023. (https://shorturl.at/s2Q71)
In the Central Baltic region, including Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, the cybersecurity sector faces labor shortages, but women remain underrepresented, making up only about 20-25% of the workforce (Woman4Cyber/Finland). Importantly this plays a crucial role both region’s economic development and gender equality goals. In the Central Baltic region, including Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Sweden, there are shared challenges related to gender disparity in the technology and cybersecurity sectors. These challenges include limited access to targeted education and training programs for women, salary-based and occupational barriers that discourage women from following careers in technology, and a lack of cross-border initiatives that can effectively address these issues. By focusing on women and providing them with specialized training in cybersecurity, the project aims to overcome these common challenges by increasing the number of skilled female professionals in the cybersecurity field, enhancing their employability.
Since programme objective as improving employment opportunities in labor market, Cyberstart directly aligns.