Security jobs online surge
Industry of the future is here to stay from Glasgow Science Centre’s STEM Futures programme explains why Scotland needs more cyber sleuths
ALL that time your teenager has been spending on their computer during lockdown isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They could be honing their career skills.
Scotland has been world famous for its industries: shipbuilding, oil and gas, textiles, whisky and more over the years. As industries rose and fell, so too did the jobs and training available for young people.
This year, Scotland is embracing a new industry that we’re becoming world leaders in: cyber security.
According to a new report from tech industry body ScotlandIS, Scotland’s cyber security sector is thriving and is an internationallyrecognised hub for cyber and tech skills. Around 230 cyber companies have a presence here and many are home grown: almost half were founded or are headquartered in Scotland.
Seven Scottish universities now offer cyber security degrees and the number of undergraduates taking cyber-related courses has doubled from 200 to 400 between 2014 and 2019.
Cyber security, or information technology security, refers to how we reduce the risk of being affected by cybercrime. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we work and live, with many of us spending more time online.
This has raised the importance of cyber security even more as hackers see more opportunities for cybercrime.
The total number of cyber incidents over this year has increased by a fifth compared to the annual average, and 46% of UK businesses and charities reported a cyber attack last year.
All this has meant that the cyber security revolution is here to stay and will offer new opportunities for young people in Scotland. Glasgow Science Centre is making sure young people in Glasgow and beyond are ready and have the skills they need to join this growing industry.
Cyber Scotland Week 2021
Our STEM Futures programme funded by the JP Morgan Foundation has joined forces with leading tech giant IBM to help support young people while they are still at school to better equip them for jobs in this industry.
This week, as part of Cyber Scotland Week 2021, we ran a series of events with secondary schools in Scotland.
The pupils took part in a workshop where they had to stop a cyber attack at a airport: a high risk scenario that helped them learn how to be cyber aware while finding out about careers in this field.
It turns out more young people want to help foil cyber attacks than we bargained for, we’ve had to extend the session by another week to fit in all the schools.
One of our sessions had more than 1200 young people booked in from 40 schools.
Our partnership with IBM means we’ll be able to offer some pupils industry-recognised work experience, and we’re also planning to help teachers become more confident talking to pupils about cyber security.
Routes into cyber security
Our STEM Futures programme is one route for young people in Glasgow and the rest of Scotland, but there are many more. A number of tech companies in Glasgow offer graduate level apprenticeships that provides a degree, industry experience and a starting salary of £19,000 per year – and teenagers can join straight from school.
STEM Futures
The technology sector is one of the areas STEM Futures is working on and we’ll be working with other sectors such as engineering, healthcare science and construction to give the young people of Scotland the opportunity to explore a career in the industries of the future.
COUNCIL chiefs have said “terrifyingly dangerous” changes to a cycle lane were made by mistake. A pop-up cycle route on Dumbreck Road has seen protective barriers removed with no warning – meaning cars are being driven head on into the cycle lane.
Cyclists expressed alarm that the two-way route was suddenly no longer segregated and said it left people on bikes at risk of being “mown down”.
Glasgow City Council was alerted to the problem by councillor Christy Mearns and has now put temporary cones in place.
A spokeswoman said the sturdier barriers would be returned in due course. But cycling groups hit out at the blunder.
Iona Shepherd, campaigns lead for GoBike, said: “Removing the physical protection from this short lane and leaving the paint in place made the road layout terrifyingly dangerous for people on bikes who had become used to the pop up lane being there, and who continued to follow the road markings.
“They were faced with being mowed down by oncoming traffic, while drivers now had no indication that they were approaching a painted two way cycle lane.”
It’s not the first time the cycle lanes have come under fire.
Last July we told how the route was causing controversy as it sent cyclists headfirst into dual carriageway motorway traffic.
The pop-up cycle route was one of many around the city put in place during the pandemic as part of Spaces For People to encourage people to cycle for commuting and leisure.
It was designed to make it easier for people to travel between Pollok Park and Bellahouston Park during lockdown.
Following a road traffic accident, the cones identifying the route to drivers were taken away and never replaced.
The route was dubbed too dangerous to keep – but then enhanced safety measures were put in place.
But for days painted road markings sent cyclists into oncoming motorway traffic.
Iona slammed the council for moving the Spaces For People lane and said Pollok Park is currently crammed with cars.
She added: “The Spaces for People lane that had been quietly removed, without consultation, and contrary to agreed council procedure, was the only physical protection there was for people cycling to any of the entrances to Pollok Park.
“This is a park currently overflowing with cars, and one that desperately needs active travel routes added to it, not removed.
“The lane has been reinstated after swift intervention by
Councillor Christy Mearns, but it shouldn’t have to take a fuss and councillor intervention to rectify what the council claim to be a mistake.
“It remains to be seen just how such a glaring mistake could have been made.
“This was a serious safety issue and is an embarrassment to a council signed up to a climate emergency in the city due to host COP26 this year.”
A council spokeswoman said: “During planned work to replace contractors’ barriers with our own, the pop-up cycle lanes were temporarily without segregation after a set of barriers at the location were unfortunately uplifted in error.
“As soon as we became aware, measures were put in place to rectify the situation in the shortterm, with the return of the barriers to follow.
“Whilst Spaces for People measures are temporary in response to Covid-19, we have previously agreed that all short-term infrastructure implemented under the programme should be evaluated with a view to making them permanent where possible, and with full local consultation.”
THERE are thousands of children in Glasgow schools eligible for free school meals because their parents’ income is so low it is considered they need help feeding them.
There are various eligibility criteria, involving universal credit, tax credits, income support and earnings thresholds, but the bottom line is the money coming in is not enough to feed the children so the state has to support them.
The alternative is hungry children.
This week, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said that Scotland is unlikely to meet its targets on reducing child poverty unless further action is taken.
Many parents are in work. They are working but are not earning enough that it is considered they are able to feed their own children.
We have laws on the minimum wage and other employment laws which state what employers can and cannot do.
The fact that there are so many people working but not able to properly feed their children shows that these laws are not enough.
The minimum wage is not enough for someone to pay their absolute essentials of housing, heating, food and basic clothing.
If it was, we wouldn’t have people needing to apply for top-up benefits.
The employment laws around contracted hours and conditions are not fit for purpose, otherwise we wouldn’t have people not knowing from one week until the next when they are working, how much they will earn and requiring a system as shambolic as Universal Credit to try and plug the gaps.
Then there are the regulations around those who provide the services that must be paid for.
The controls on the private rented sector are not adequate. If they were, there wouldn’t be people being evicted on the whim of a landlord, or ridiculous rents asked for properties that shouldn’t be allowed to have tenets in the first place.
The controls on the energy market are also not good enough.
If they were, there wouldn’t be poorer people on the highest tariffs charged over the odds for prepayment meters.
If there was adequate legislation on all these areas that were designed to work in the interest of those who use the service rather than those who provide them, there would be less chance of people not having enough money to meet what should be the first priority of feeding their own children.
As it is, people are left with the decision of what to do with the last fiver of the month.
Do they go to the supermarket and see how much they can get and how long they can eke it out for?
Or do they put it in the gas and electric meter and try to make it last.
The choice between heating and eating is real for too many people.
I cannot count the number of stories written in this paper about food and fuel poverty.
Some that spring to mind include a man who had been surviving on just water for four days before he went to a Glasgow foodbank for help.
He had no cash for food and had run out of credit for gas and electricity while he waited for a new Universal Credit benefit claim to be processed.
Another was a man who was
at a food bank and asked for food that didn’t need heating as he had run out of electricity.
There are many, many more and they are individual tragedies that collectively amount to a national scandal.
So many solutions for tackling poverty are about giving out more money.
Expanding eligibility for free school meals, a Scottish Child Payment, an extra £20 on Universal Credit.
Right now, given the crisis, they are needed.
What we need in the long-term is policies that mean we do not need to be handing out money to working people but policies that allow parents to earn enough to pay for housing, pay their heating bills, feed and clothe their children and still have income left over to pay for other things that better off people take for granted.
If it means more powers for Holyrood to do so then no-one should stand in the way of that.
Then we can focus on supporting those who are unable to work for whatever reason.
We are coming up to an election and manifestos are being written, party election broadcast, scripted speeches crafted.
There will be many issues raised and many solutions proposed.
The pandemic has exposed many injustices and inequalities to the wider consciousness.
The education system needs reformed and how pupils are assessed following last year’s SQA algorithm debacle.
The NHS is woefully underresourced and the underfunding of decades has come home to roost as we see staff and services stretched to breaking point.
Resources have to be prioritised and all these issues require attention.
If however, a society is unable or unwilling to ensure parents can feed their children, it is unlikely to be able to get the other things right either.
Is it possible at this election we can see parties list that as their absolute number one priority? If so, please let me know. I might even consider voting for you.
We need policies that allow parents to earn enough to pay their bills