How the TechFirst scheme will equip a new generation of cybersecurity professionals

• New £187m TechFirst scheme will train one million young people in the UK with more advanced cybersecurity skills.
• Secondary school pupils across the country will be given the chance to unlock skills in AI, cybersecurity and computer science.
• The TechFirst online platform builds on CyberFirst’s Explorers programme, which has 100,000 students registered to date.
• In each of the UK’s regions and nations, a local partner will be selected by DSIT to run the programme and deliver activities to schools and colleges in the area.
• The cybersecurity skills in the UK labour market 2024 paper found that 30% of cyber firms in 2024 faced a problem with a technical skills gap

One million students in secondary schools across the UK are about to be given the opportunity to learn and develop their skills in AI and tech. 

The TechFirst scheme, a new £187m investment programme launched by the prime minister, will enable AI learning and digital skills to be brought into sharper focus in classrooms and communities to incentivise more young people into tech careers.

The flagship strand of this programme, “TechYouth” – backed by £24 million of government funding – will give 1 million students, over three years across every secondary school in the UK, the chance to learn about technology and gain access to a wide array of skills training and career opportunities that will advance them into careers of the future.

According to the announcement from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Department of Education, the AI sector alone is valued at £72.3 billion and is projected to exceed £800 billion by 2035. It is growing 30 times faster than the rest of the economy, employing over 64,000 people across more than 3,700 companies.

Despite AI’s rapid growth shaping future job roles and service requirements, the 2024 UK labour market analysis found that 30% of cyber firms faced a technical skills gap in 2024. Additionally, approximately 637,000 businesses (44%) have a basic skills gap, where employees responsible for cybersecurity lack the confidence to carry out basic tasks. A further 390,000 businesses (27%) have gaps in advanced skills, such as penetration testing.

Conor O’Neill, CEO and Co-founder of OnSecurity, an industry-first AI-augmented pentesting service, commented on the introduction of the scheme and what it means for the future of the UK’s technology workforce:

“As a nation, we are seeing a huge IT skills shortage in many different roles across the industry, which has a huge impact on the cybersecurity posture of a business and the wider job market.

“IT staff are needed to securely deploy systems, to monitor and maintain them, and crucially, ensure systems remain patched and up to date to prevent malicious hackers from exploiting published vulnerabilities and breaching systems and networks.

“Due to the ‘newness’ of AI, its ever-evolving functionality and its capabilities, I think our sector is at even more risk of the skills gap widening further without this scheme being introduced..

“It’s fantastic for our economy to see that by 2035, around 10 million workers will be in roles where AI will be part of their role or responsibilities in some form, with a further 3.9 million in roles directly in AI. However,  to fulfil demand, companies need to allocate more of their budget to training their employees to understand and maintain new and emerging AI technologies. 

“Referring specifically to the cybersecurity industry, the problem is further exacerbated by the fact that the cybersecurity skills shortage is even larger than more ‘generalist’ IT skills. This means there are not enough IT generalists or security domain specialists across the market to adequately protect businesses, the public sector, and the UK from the ever-growing threats of organised cybercrime gangs and nation-state actors.

“The most effective way to address the shortage in the current job market is through government-funded, large-scale, short-term online IT training programmes. These should be accessible to school and university leavers, career-changers, those returning from career breaks, and even retired individuals seeking to re-enter the workforce. Importantly, we should also encourage young people to take initiative and begin self-teaching where possible. This will enable them to practice the skills being taught through external training and programmes to help accelerate their learning.  Formal qualifications aren’t the only route into a successful career in cybersecurity or IT. When government-funded initiatives do become available, they should act as accelerators—helping motivated individuals build on their self-taught skills and transition into the sector with confidence.”

“The impact AI will have on the IT sector’s job market vs the risk of losing your job is greatly weighted towards the opportunities it will bring. We will need a variety of experts, such as AI/machine learning engineers, software developers, cybersecurity analysts, security operations consultants, and security development managers, to name a few. We need these experts to understand and better regulate AI, respond to cyber, ransom and malware attacks that slip past AI-automated processes and introduce technical standards for businesses to support global governance”.