IT security company, Fortinet, is extending its channel training program to TAFE and Universities across Australia and New Zealand in a move to address the skills gap in the industry.
The program - dubbed the Fortinet Security Academy - is seeking education and training partners to roll out the certification and attract new students and those who wish to retrain in IT security.
Fortinet has appointed Allan Mouawad as the Fortinet Network Security Academy Project Manager.
Mouawad has worked for both of Fortinet’s distributors, Ingram Micro and Exclusive Networks, in the last five years in consulting and training capacities.
As part of these roles, he was in charge of running the network security certifications and it is this course that he will be presenting to the educational institutions.
“We are still going to have distributors running network security expert program for the channel,” he explained.
“What we are trying to do is implement this course for new students and veterans that are looking for a change in careers.
Mouawad cited the Australian cyber security strategy which predicted a global deficit of 1.5 million security professionals by 2020 and said that this would become a major issue for the entire industry.
“We need to have a lot of these students come out of TAFE and university with security qualifications to meet that gap.
The course consists of theoretical and practical components and Mouawad said this made tertiary institutions ideal places to run the courses as they were equipped with lab and classroom environments to host both aspects.
Students who complete the program will have a globally recognised certification that is generic to the security industry and not just applicable to Fortinet technologies.
