Facilitating Regional Growth Through Careers In Cyber by Anya Bridges

um yeah so today we're just going to be talking a little bit about kind of the importance of cyber clusters within regions to support skills and careers throughout the cyber security industry and the importance of Yorkshire people making decisions for Yorkshire and what we can all do to get involved um and what our Collective responsibility is and we're also going to be talking on um the mutual benefits of businesses and professionals supporting cyber clusters and the work that they do throughout the different regions within the UK so of course Melanie was going to be delivering this um talk today but unfortunately she's unavailable as I as I mentioned so hopefully I can provide you with some

valuable insight into the work that Melanie does with the Yorkshire security cluster and all of the other wonderful organizations that she's quite heavily involved with so I'll tell you a little bit about Melanie's um story um as she's not here so yeah Melanie founded um Bob's business which is a cyber security awareness training company back in um 2007 I want to say um and then she also started Yorkshire cyber security cluster um in 2015 and then when you know decent recognized the great work that all of the Clusters were doing and they decided to to start funding the Clusters and that then formulated UK C3 which is the the UK cyber cluster collaboration and that's the three C's and she is a

director of UK C3 as well um she's also a very passionate speaker on The Human Side of cyber security obviously having a um cyber security training and culture business and that's something that she is very passionate and frequently speaks about um and as part of that she you know often um is a provides advice to to go government and through her role of being a non-exact director of Industry advisor um so she's also does a lot of work with the local universities throughout Yorkshire and where Melanie um now resides in Huddersfield so she does a lot of work with um Sheffield Hallam as well to student executive in Residence there and has a fellowship of

the chartered Institute for information security as well so she does a lot of work with them and of course to top it all off and was awarded last year and and OB for her services to cyber security which I just think you know says exactly Testament of the work that she's done throughout her career um so yeah that's a little bit about that mail if you didn't already know um so we've kind of split this presentation into three sections and the first section is all about um the North and South divide in regards to public investment and funding and we're going to specifically take a look at yorkshire's funding in comparison to to London and and the South and

obviously that's quite key where we're virtually in Leeds today but um yeah I think it's most of I assume most of us from the call are in in Yorkshire so I wanted to take a deep dive into that and we also have a case study to show you that shows the importance of consistency um in regards to public investment and into the socio-economic deprived areas and how this can then lead to effective regional growth um so yeah so just kind of gonna set the scene with a couple of stats which I'm sure we're all aware of you know it's it's something that's frequently talked about um is is the north south divide but I just wanted to give you a little bit

more um context to set the scene for for the rest of the of the talk um so the UK is the most regionally unbalanced large Advanced economic economics sorry globally and and you know the driving Factor behind this is the imbalance um and the disparity between the North and the South and so a great example of this which you know there's lots of times where I sometimes realize this so I was um down at infosec um the other day and um managed to get around London and there's a tube turning up every two minutes and it's relatively easy just to go from one side of London to another within 10-15 minutes um I I live in Barnsley which is in

South Yorkshire and there's about a 20 minute drive away from Leeds on the motorway but yeah it takes me 45 minutes to get there by train and there's a you know there's so many it's you kind of think why and you can never rely on trains I always find them getting canceled um and I think there's there's a lot more investment and transportation is a really great example of that into the South and then there is kind of the north I mean hs2 is a really great example of that as well and which I'm sure um but not to get to the political you know it's a topic that that's been discussed quite heavily um so yeah so this is evident in the

fact that you know between 2014 and 2019 alone London received an extra 61 billion pounds of public investment compared with the entirety of the north so London alone received an extra an additional 61 billion I just think when I read that start I couldn't even kind of put um put into my own head of how different that is and it just kind of goes to show of how how different and you know this may seem understandable obviously London's the capital of course they're going to invest a lot more into into London but I I wanted to bring that stat in today because I thought you know this really plays Testament to the to the case study that we're going to look at

and the fact that actually Germany did a really really great um you know they're a great example of a country that has had a very um apparent divide between I think it's the the East and the west and um similar to our North and South divide and then they you know consistently um invested in the I think it's the East that they invested in um it's come up on the side and confirm in a minute but um they consistently um invested into public spending over extended period of time and how that can alleviate the gap between kind of the imbalance of the West and East of Germany um so so yeah so going on um so to dive a little bit more into

Yorkshire and take a bit of a stronger look in that and like many parts of North England um Yorkshire has been underfunded for quite a few years now um and as a result we have a higher and the national average um in the number of benefits being received in the percentage of workless households and but You know despite all of that we still have the fastest growing digital sector throughout the UK and you know I just I just think that plays absolute Testament to the importance of these events and besides leads and having events within Yorkshire um so at the Yorkshire cyber security cluster you know we believe that capitalizing on this on the fact that we

have the fastest growing digital sector um is is just so um important to kind of the greater regional growth of of our region um so a great like you know an example of this is um so when I I was to tell you a little bit about my story is um so I went to a school in Barnsley I went to a state school in Barnsley and um I managed to get a apprenticeship with with Bob's business so you know the company that that Melanie founded um and I I worked for them in the tech team and you know within my family I am one of the first persons in my immediate family to work in a corporate role in a

corporate position and my family although they've worked incredible incredibly hard but you know I've had plenty of conversations and when I was looking for career advice and I I've gone turned around to them and go what do you think I should do or when I was making this decision between choosing an apprenticeship or a levels or a B Tech and I asked them and a lot of their responses was actually I'm not shawl I couldn't tell you because we was just kind of forced out of school at um 18 or 16 and just went into a kind of low income um you know job of in in manufacturing or retail or hospitality and you know

it's not to say that they've not not worked up and work worked you know their way up but you know I think there's a lot more kind of jobs in them sectors and less um higher opportunity higher paid salary jobs within Yorkshire at that time however now I think due to the work that the digital sector has done and obviously again going back to that point with the fastest growing and region in terms of digital sector you know we have a real opportunity now to break the cycle of that and introduce more higher income positions within the region and create in you know that much needed growth that I think we all are kind of

looking for within Yorkshire I know being a young adult myself a lot of my peers are in University now and they've all traveled down south to go to universities down there and there you know chances are they'll probably they're already looking at postgraduate jobs within kind of Bristol or Surrey or London um and you know I think it is our Collective responsibility to recruit apprentices recruit um graduates and the type that Rosie and Natasha um was was doing earlier I just think it I I took a lot of tip tips from that myself as well and the importance of networking and but I kind of want to like flip it on its head as well with this this session and

just kind of say as as employers as well we we have a responsibility um so yeah so going back to the case study that that I was discussing earlier um so since um reunification which was in 1990 um a total estimate this is heavily debated but um it's between 1.5 trillion Euros to 2 trillion Euros um so that works out around 70 billion um per year was spent tackling the East West divide in Germany and so again that's quite similar to our North self divide um and experts um and citizens within the the east region of of Germany were actually they were the ones that were co-designing the policies to to level up the cities

um and towns within the east of Germany so again I think it comes back to the importance of Yorkshire people knowing what's good for Yorkshire and you know when MPS have got local MPS have got a lot of responsibility with that and um especially now we've got a selfie option there and things such as that but um you know I think again coming back to this piece of the fact that we've all got a responsibility within Yorkshire and so in recent years um let's Leipzig I think is is how you found it with apologies if I'm wrong and feel free to correct me if anyone knows and has received numerous awards for the quality um of of Life there and and the kind of

peace and and how how great it is to to live there now um and that they're located in in the east as well so they are you know again a great example of a city that's kind of would have been classed as a a deprived area to now kind of leveling up and showing that actually that that Improvement and so gentrification and um more businesses and more jobs than kind of getting them to where they are now um yeah so I think you know we can definitely learn um from this approach and just kind of shows that um we know I think a lot of us know what's best for our region and you know

speaking at Yorkshire services that we speak to businesses all of the time who quite frequently you know say to to I'm obviously saying to me um look you know we're really struggling to recruit skilled workers or there's not enough cyber security graduates within Yorkshire or where we're struggling um to do this so as kind of why CSE we've then kind of took that kind of responsibility a little bit and and then said okay what can we do and what what can our like um impact be which um I'll come on to later in the presentation but you know what we kind of said what we're going to do is we were going to engage with

schools and engage with employers and try and set up that that mentorship opportunity and then relationships and try and guide students through their education journey through you know um when they're coming in secondary school when they're picking their options or just before they pick their options and then when they're leaving school at you know 16 what are they going to do are they going to go on to a levels are they going to choose an apprenticeship group and helping them you know decide that that Journey um so yeah exactly so how can we um as as people on this call change that kind of change that direction change the tide and how how what the role of

clusters are in um reading that prosperity so I'm just going to talk a little bit more about kind of what actually our cyber classes for those that don't know but also the importance of them clusters in facilitating again that regional growth um and what ycse specifically do and our successes so far in sporting skills within Yorkshire um yeah so just to give you a little bit more about clusters and the ycsc so our members um are mainly comprised of Industry professionals smes business owners students and academics so basically all we ask is that you have an interest and a passion for cyber security or Tech or it oh you want to you know you want to

move into it you don't have to necessarily come down under one of them um one of them them domains um so we host monthly events um where we we do um one in every three of them events is an in-person event so we've got an event next month in in Bradford in July um and it's just about kind of knowledge sharing collaborating and so again going back to what um Natasha and Rosie were saying earlier about the importance of um getting involved in community groups in your local area and if you're from Yorkshire if you're not from Yorkshire you know there's there's probably a cluster near you there's 13 clusters across the UK and I think that's soon to

grow to 15 and if you want to find out more about your local cluster or which one which is near to you you can see that on ukc3 I think it's dot Co dot UK um so yeah and it's free to attend it's free to become a member and you have the opportunity to network with you know a bunch of different individuals throughout the the industry um so we provide opportunities for growth and collaboration to develop Futures cyber Talent within Yorkshire and we do this through various ways such as we hosted the cyberfest girls competition and for the past two years um so for those that don't know about the Cyber first girls competition and

it's all about kind of getting young girls and I think it's age 11 to 13 it might be wrong on that um but it's a year eight girls um trying to get into get them into cyber doing kind of coding competitions and then they get through to a finale which for the past two years we have Hotel online but I think that's soon to change and we've done that in partnership with the national cyber security Center who run the cyberfirst initiative which is really really great and again um if you're a someone looking to get into doing a degree apprenticeship and the cyberfest website is great you know they do bursary schemes for people who

are wanting to do a degree in cyber security and they also do um degree apprenticeship schemes as well um which is obviously a really great opportunity for you to work with just industry standard and one of the top organizations in cyber um we also do a cyber Kickstart program um within Yorkshire cyber security cluster and that was all about getting student working with and going into schools throughout Yorkshire and delivering master classes workshops bringing industry Professionals in and helping them towards a qualification we did a summer school as well which we actually got quite a good turnout for to say that year nines we're giving up two days of their um summer holiday so I think we've got about 50 60 and

that was that was that sort of phenomenal we ran that last year um and that was in collaboration with the CRF fund and the South Yorkshire combined Authority and obviously currently we're doing some skills research with in partnership with UK C3 um that's funded by dsip and so we work quite heavily with schools colleges universities and the stem hubs and to obviously encourage students to consider careers in cyber and but we also do support adult Learners with career changes as obviously that's a huge part that I think people kind of miss and I know just to highlight um caps lock as well if you are really looking to you know get into cyber um as as an adult learner or even if

you're you know a student a cops look is if you're looking for a mentor they are phenomenal and but also if you're looking for someone maybe local in Yorkshire please feel free to you know reach out to me at the end and I'll see what I can do to facilitate that um but yeah so ukc3 um who kind of is the umbrella roller organization of all the Clusters have three main goals so that's ecosystem development skills growth and Innovation and so all of the Clusters have a skills um remit um so some of the other skills programs that we've founded in our skills a research project that we're that we're doing um are um cyber signums cyber schools program

so they've reached over 4 000 students and there's a woman in cyber Wales um cyber first explorers program again that's reached about I think 450 students and there's you know plenty more um great work being done one that's happening particularly in Yorkshire that's you know really supporting adult Learners and career changes is the um cyber Reddit um which is funded by um comment here um by cyber Bradford and they're they're doing really great work in helping individuals and get into cyber through doing I think it's a Security Plus um certification and at the moment that's that's for Bradford but um it is such a great example of um you know investing into them um what would be classed as socio um

economically deprived areas and how we can you know flip that on its head and really you know invest into that so I guess we all kind of want to know um how you come in and how how we can help um so I guess I'm just going to hit on kind of how you can get involved and kind of our Collective responsibility and something I you know I really wanted to point out was and it was it was said to me at a um decent cyber Grove Forum um and then in in Leeds actually um it was the other Monday and it was it was pointed out that we were all privileged individuals to be there

um when I heard that I thought you know what we are absolutely right and everyone here today um should you know class themselves as also you know we have all worked hard to be where we are but also you know you're a privileged individual to be here listen to these you know the great speakers that have just just been on and get them tips and note them down so I think for me let's you know old pledge to to give that back so whatever you've learned today again going back to that networking piece that was highlighted in the previous talk about writing about the events you're here today like Natasha said write about it um so you know talk about what you

learned share that knowledge and talk about the importance of networking talk about and the importance of getting involved with clusters talk about the importance of volunteering for groups such as b-sides um and you know let's give back to the community and take that pledge of whatever you learn try and always pass it on or you know if you manage to then get into so I mean I wouldn't have been here if someone would have helped me and mentored me and supported me and now I try my best to always you know when Melanie said look I'm really sorry I couldn't do this talk would you mind I was a bit nervous I can't lie but I was

like okay yeah sure let's let's do it um so yeah I think just kind of pledging to give back a little bit really um so how you can get involved um is obviously you know signing up to your local cluster and the ycsa and other clusters and have experience in internships and apprenticeships and you know we can help you create those um apprenticeship programs um we have networking events again both virtual in person within the regions and so if you're a student and other learner or anyone looking to get in cyber security or you're a professional looking to recruit um your next Apprentice or graduate or just looking to you know see who else is

out there and collaborate and it's definitely worth attending and just on that collaboration piece and I think this one's a bit more for the professionals and I'm I'm smes but you know don't be scared to to collaborate um that was one of the things that that came out of that that the event run by desit and that I went to the other week and it was don't be afraid to partner with other cyber businesses and you know we we all want to strive for a strongly Yorkshire and a stronger region and wherever you know we are in the north so let's collaborate let's bring together um you know um cyber businesses you know if you do

um a niche within cyber security and you've got a particular client looking for um another niche in cyber security so you know if you're a pen testing company but you know someone and you have a client that's particularly interested into um how it's getting a cyber security awareness training platform is there a platform that you are aware of within Yorkshire and just help keeping opportunities and you know within the region really are just supporting that whole um for you know regional growth and opportunities um so yeah so we are quite again going back to that point of where very heavily involved with the schools and the universities so if you're a business and you're looking to build relationships

with your local schools if you're looking to go and attend mock interview days careers fairs and do a master class do a talk to their students our schools would bite your hand off and I can tell you that now they are always looking for people to come and talk about tech and cyber because of a lot of the the teachers don't necessarily know about it as well or feel like they can't talk about it so to have someone come in and deliver them talks or even if you're a student and you know you've had a great phenomenal Journey um and now you've just huge upload talk come in and Deliver us a talk to our you

know year sevens your age year nines um and and show them of how you've because you're more relatable and I think that's particularly what what I always try and do is I try and go and go back to my um previous school that I went to and they're like oh actually you're not um years and years older you're actually quite a relatable figure so if you are anyone like that and you want to give back a little bit please please get in touch um and just kind of I think this is one of the things that Melanie really wanted to Zone in and was the fact that if you are a business don't be afraid to bring

in career changes and invest in someone and you know like what was said in the in the talk you know invested a lot of companies are willing to invest and and teach um because the technical stuff can be learned but you know a lot of um adults that are having career changes um and and switching careers have got such invaluable skills and they call them soft skills um but I I think um I can't remember that they're oh it was um the cat slot call them something different and it was a really bit it's off the top of my tongue now but anyway um and you know they have some incredibly valuable skills um but yeah

so and and one again a justification for investing in new talent and whether that be adult Learners Apprentice or postgrad jobs um is obviously often big companies the big corporate companies can often out price smaller ones and smes and startups when it comes to um you know salaries so actually um something that we've seen particularly work really well in Bob's uh business is invest in apprentices you know we've got people that have been with us for 10 years now and they started off at 16 and now they're heading our sales and you know then people are loyal then people really you know they grow with your organization and they you know ultimately the driving force between

um bobs at the moment so yeah I think apprentices are a really great way but also postgraduates and and overential level positions so um really skim over this slide because obviously quite conscious of time and but yeah so you know cyber security presents unique opportunities so allowing for remote working so if you're someone that's looking to get in cyber and you know look outside of Yorkshire but you know I that sounds quite contradicting but obviously if you're working remotely you're still within Yorkshire your salary is then coming back to your region um and I think you know that that provides us with that really um interesting new um opportunities since covered um and yeah just you know become part of

the solution and and put let's you know take it in our own hands instead of leaving it to the people higher up um but yeah if you would like to get in touch um you can find us on um Instagram Twitter um and you can also find us on YouTube and Spotify um and obviously if you would like to become a member and like to find out more that's completely free as well um but yeah thank you so much to the besides leads team for having um us and again really sorry that um you couldn't have Melanie today but I hope I am filled in her shoes Okay um so yeah thanks