Ending the era of retreat: What a ￡16.5bn investment in military tech means for service leavers
Waking up to the news that Boris Johnson promises the biggest defence investment since the end of the cold war, mainly on new technology for the armed forces, is a step in the right direction.
It clearly signals that our government is seriously acknowledging the threat of cyber crime and state sponsored cyber operations to the UK and its businesses. As Boris Johnson said in his statement they are, "more perilous and more intensely competitive than at any time since the cold war".
The establishment of a national cyber force is well overdue, but this programme cannot evolve to be just another military stovepipe.
In developing plans to spend the ￡16.5bn investment, the MOD's implementation team must develop a process that applies best practice from the industry experts who have fought on the frontline of cyber security for decades. If the Covid-19 global pandemic has taught us anything, it's that we need to be aggressively collaborative and pull in the right expertise, at the right time and at the right cost to the taxpayer.
Join us with partners Splunk on Tues 24th Nov 17:30 - 20:30 to find out how Ben Lovley and Craig Smith made the leap from the Armed Forces to the cyber tech industry.
It's also a pivotal moment for the MOD; a clear opportunity to review, streamline and retire redundant programmes and equipment. Is this the trigger that the MOD needs in order to step back and focus resources on becoming leaner and more efficient? Is the wider government driver behind this decision one that will see a cash boost to the UK tech industry in light of doomsday post-Covid economic predictions?
Whatever is decided in Whitehall, what's clear to me is that this is an extremely positive step for our armed services personnel - individuals yet to join and those coming up through the ranks. From a retention perspective, (a wicked problem for our Armed Forces) an increase of cyber and technology opportunities roles within the MOD will prove cost effective in the long term. Our service personnel will have the opportunity to gain experience, build up their skills and access highly-relevant qualifications in cyber security to set them up for success when they leave the Armed Forces. Currently, service leavers who want to become cyber specialists face a struggle to compete in the jobs market, lacking relevant experience and exposure.
We know that jobs across tech, whether they be in programming, automation, AI, robotics, NLP, cyber security or other fields are booming and if we're to alleviate the issues faced by our service leavers then defence initiatives like this are a great place to start.
Join us with partners Splunk on Tuesday 24th November 17:30 - 20:30 to hear how TechVets is supporting service leavers into cyber jobs
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