Career Comeback Programme for Women in Cyber Risk Management

• Programme will help address talent gap faced by cybersecurity industry
• Women will undergo 3-month empowerment programme by government & industry

Yesterday, Malaysia Digital Economy Corp (MDEC), in a collaboration with Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM); the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) Department of Women Development (JPW), National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) and TalentCorp, announced the Empowering Women in Cyber Risk Management Programme for women returning to work.

In her keynote, Hannah Yeoh, Deputy Minister of KPWKM pointed out, "According to the Minister of Human Resources during the annual ‘Life at Work 2018’ award, women make up half of Malaysia’s population and almost half of the national workforce and if more women join the workforce, the Gross Domestic Product has the potential to increase between US$1.43 billion to US$2.15 billion (RM6 billion to RM9 billion).”

Based on recent AT Kearney cybersecurity ASEAN study, the Top 1000 ASEAN companies could lose up to US$750 billion (RM3.13 trillion) in market capitalisation from cyberattacks and cybersecurity concerns could derail the region’s digital innovation agenda – a central pillar for its success in the digital economy. In addition, there is tremendous opportunity for Malaysia's cybersecurity industry, considering that ASEAN’s cybersecurity spending is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% between 2015 and 2025.

“The Empowering Women in Cyber Risk Management programme is established to address the talent gap faced by the country. Aligned with the Malaysia Cyber Security Strategy (MCSS) Framework which will be launched soon, the initiative will be supporting one of its five strategic thrusts that look into Developing Capacity Building, Awareness and Education,” explained Ir Md Shah Nuri, Chief Executive of NACSA, during the launch of the programme held at KPWKM.

“The collaboration is in line with TalentCorp's continued focus on increasing Malaysia's female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) to ensure a more inclusive and productive workforce and workplace for the future of work,” said Hajah Mahuran Saro Sariki, TalentCorp deputy chief executive officer.

The key benefits of Empowering Women in Cyber Risk Management are to:

• Address the fast-growing industry demand of local and regional corporation to fill the mid-tier position;
• Offer a sustainable ecosystem to women to make a successful career comeback and help to attract higher pay from new role.
• Promote workforce diversity as hiring women in cybersecurity will allow creative innovation to address complex cybersecurity challenges, multiple ways of thinking, bring more views to the table and offer different range of skills that will benefit the industry.

The programme will be an expansion of collaboration between TalentCorp and MDEC on talent development, where an MoU between the two parties has been established in October last year. According to Frost & Sullivan Digital Talent Study, Malaysia will need 10,500 cybersecurity professionals by 2020. MDEC has been identifying new source of talents, which include developing industry-ready talent from university students and upskilling programmes, reskilling up skilling professionals and women.

Surina Shukri, MDEC chief executive officer, said “This pilot career comeback programme will be an essential step towards developing a high-value critical cybersecurity talent pool.  In addition, inclusivity programmes such as this will empower women to develop the skills needed for jobs now in high demand in today’s era of the 4^th Industrial Revolution. The cyber risk management programme will further help women to a future proof career, allowing them to be become long term contributors to our digital economy. This will also strengthen Malaysia as a hub for cybersecurity talent and play an important role in the growth of the nation’s digital economy agenda”.

The 3-month empowerment programme has received support from industry partners namely CIMB, Ernst & Young, PwC Malaysia, Roche Shared Services Centre Kuala Lumpur, Standard Chartered Global Business Services Sdn. Bhd., SWIFT and Malaysia cybersecurity service providers such as AKATI Consulting Group, FIRMUS Sdn Bhd, LGMS/LE Global Services Sdn Bhd., NEXAGATE Sdn Bhd and Agmo Studio Sdn. Bhd. There will also be ISACA Malaysia, Cisco Systems (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Tecforte Sdn Bhd, F-Secure and AsiaCyberX that will play their role as the strategic partners to provide industry re-skilling programme in preparing the returning workforce to be cyber risk management ready.

The programme welcomes all Malaysian citizen with 3 years corporate experience and have been on more than 6 months career break. All applications can be submitted to http://bit.ly/WomeninCyber, before 31 July.  MDEC welcome companies to leverage on this career comeback programme as the industry partners. Kindly contact [email protected].