Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the continued provision of an adequacy of people with cyber security skills into the future.

The government is investing £84 million of new funding over the next five years to improve the teaching of computing and drive up participation in computer science qualifications, particularly amongst girls. This will include increasing the expertise of up to 8,000 existing computer science teachers and a new National Centre for Computing Education. These changes build on the curriculum reforms made to primary and secondary education which include new challenging content such as coding, Boolean logic, and algorithms. Such reforms will provide students with the basic building blocks needed to go onto study cyber-security in further and higher education.

For those wishing to follow a more technical route, we are creating new T levels for 16-18 year olds, and the government is currently considering options on how to incorporate cyber security within T-level routes. Employers are also designing new apprenticeship standards to replace apprenticeship frameworks putting industry at the heart of the skills system. A number of cyber related apprenticeship standards have already been approved for delivery. The government has introduced new innovative digital degree apprenticeships, which are employer accredited and have seen a growing number of employers and universities come together to create relevant, high quality curricula. In addition, we have supported the creation of Ada, the National College of Digital Skills, which will train up to 5,000 students within its first seven years for a wide range of digital careers.

The department also works across government in helping deliver programmes to improve our national digital confidence, capability and capacity through the 2016-2021 National Cyber Security Strategy, which can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/567242/national_cyber_security_strategy_2016.pdf.