Education and Career News / Trends from around the World — January 16th, 2021

Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS

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Education

Learning in Lockdown: How to motivate students for further online classes

Excerpts from article by Christina Lorey, published in channel3000.com

When schools first shifted to online learning in 2020, students, parents and teachers had no idea how long it would last. it’s safe to say that most of them didn’t anticipate it would last this long.

So how do you get your kids excited for further online learning? Child psychologists say the most successful families are doing three things to keep their kids motivated:

1. Find an incentive that keeps your children focused

Some may call it a bribe, but psychologists say it is okay to do that right now. Tell your kids that if they finish their schoolwork, they’ll earn extra screen time, a special dessert or the chance to pick a movie for your family to watch. Try to avoid giving them money or toys, which will be hard to maintain financially.

2. Be flexible, and allow your kids to have a say

Psychologists say that when it comes to at-home learning, the most successful families are usually not the ones who are meticulously scheduled. If your son or daughter wants to ride bikes after lunch and finish their math homework later, let them. Allowing children to have a say in what they’re doing or when teaches them intrinsic motivation.

3. Make time for children to connect with friends

Maybe it’s playing a socially-distanced game of hide & seek, or just a video chat while eating lunch. Kids learn a lot through social interactions, and these interactions will help them feel more normal, too.

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Career

Top 10 in-demand cyber security skills for 2021

Excerpts from article by Mary K. Pratt, published in arnnet.com.au

Jimmy Sanders has a long list of work to do, so he wants a security team that can handle the multitude of tasks ahead – from advancing his company’s zero trust security strategy to securing its cloud deployments to deploying machine learning solutions.

Team members must be able to do all that at scale, as well as shift gears and up-skill as quickly as business needs shift, technology evolves and security risks change.

Sanders is the head of security for Netflix DVD and president of the San Francisco chapter of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA).

He puts “comfortable with change” as one of the most in-demand skills for 2021, alongside internal drive and the ability to be self-directed with work.

“The people who can do all that are in super high demand,” he says.

Security leaders say there’s not only a shortage in the number of qualified people working in the field, but it’s also challenging to find the needed skills among the existing pool of security professionals. 

In fact, security professionals increasingly need the right combination of multiple security skills alongside technology, business, and interpersonal skills, as security jobs morph into a hybrid of roles.

Here are the 10 areas where skills are most in demand:

1 – Risk identification and management

The best way to mitigate threats is to understand the risk. So, people versed on governance and strategy who can determine the best solutions, find the right technology or the right outside provider, as well as build the right capacity in-house are most needed.

2 – Technical fundamentals

CISOs are also looking for people with overall technical skills, noting that they can’t understand risk and develop security plans for a digital world without understanding the IT components that make up the infrastructure.

3 – Data management and analysis

The security department is one of the biggest generators of data within the enterprise, and in many organisations it’s becoming one of the biggest consumers of data, too, as it seeks to use information to drive more effective and efficient protection strategies. They’re looking to make sense of the massive amounts of data they have.

4 – DevSecOps

Organisations are increasingly moving beyond DevOps to DevSecOps, seeking to add security considerations into the application design and development phase to ensure more secure apps. That requires security people with development and operations knowledge and experience.

5 – Cloud

The wide-scale adoption of cloud, and especially the increasing embrace of a multi-cloud strategy, has increased the demand for security workers who are experienced in cloud deployments and can marry that with the enterprise security strategy.

6 – Automation

It its 2020 report, The Life and Times of Cybersecurity Professionals, ESG says enterprise security can use automation to help address the cyber security skills shortage. Experts concur, explaining that automating repetitive tasks creates efficiencies and boosts effectiveness while shifting valuable employee time to the complex work that only humans can do. Automating security functions, though, requires security workers skilled in actually implementing automation solutions.

7 – Threat hunting

Threat hunting is a relatively new security strategy that is gaining wide-scale traction. According to a 2020 survey from security solutions maker DomainTools, 93 per cent of organisations said threat hunting should be a top security initiative to provide early detection and reduce risk. The growing interest in, and implementation of, threat hunting practices is driving demand for the right combination of skills needed to do the job. Burning Glass lists it as the no. 4 fastest-growing in-demand skill.

8 – Interpersonal skills

The cyber security function has become not only more critical with the rise of the digital economy, it has become more prominent as well. That puts security professionals in front of the C-suite, board members, and employees with greater frequency. So, they must be able to collaborate, communicate, and consult with these various stakeholders.

9 – Business acumen

There’s demand for workers who understand the business, speak in business terms and view themselves as businesspeople as well as technologists. Security professionals must help their organisations balance security with costs, market demands and other business metrics.

10 – Agility

According to the 2020 (ISC)² workforce study, 30 per cent of respondents saw their organisations move to a remote workforce in a just one day as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, while another 47 per cent had just several days to a week to make the shift (only 16 per cent had more than a week.) Experts don’t anticipate such rapid workplace transformations to become the norm, but they do expect the pace of technology and business changes to continue accelerating.

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(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)

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