Barbados Sees Rising Interest in Cybersecurity Jobs with Cyber Nations Training Initiative

Barbadians are expressing great interest in job opportunities in the cybersecurity field.

Since the advent of the Cyber Nations Training Initiative in January last year, about 250 people have earned a certificate in this field of study.

After a graduation ceremony at Mahogany Ridge in Plum Tree Road, St James on Wednesday, the programme director for Cyber Nations in Barbados Dr Rick Huijbregts said many people were interested in the training initiative because they were immediately given job placements with a competitive salary.

“We’re super proud of what we’re accomplishing together with the students,” he said. “We started a year ago with the first cohort. We had about 130 students graduating. They’re all currently gainfully employed in cybersecurity roles. And today, a little bit over 100 more students graduated and over the next few months, we will work to find placements. So they get to put what they have learned into practice. And that really helps them round out to become entry-level talent into a very fast-growing global cybersecurity marketplace.”

In January 2023, Barbados and Cyber Nations entered an arrangement that would see 1 500 Barbadians being trained in cybersecurity. The programme was created in Canada to train 100 000 people in the Caribbean and Africa to become cybersecurity operations analysts, incident responders and cyber literacy coordinators.

For the most part, the graduates will be working remotely for companies across the globe but some have also been contracted to work with local firms, Dr Huijbregts said.

“We’re working with some companies in Barbados [as] the need for cybersecurity is great here as well. And in the region, the roles are mostly remote roles where they get to support organisations across the world. The most companies today engaged with us are in North America and those are organisations that have just either very little or no cyber protections and, frankly, need this incredible talent to start to provide monitoring and support and protection of their businesses,” he explained.

As it relates to compensation, the workers receive $60 000 annually – $5 000 monthly – at an entry-level rate. They are contracted for one year and from there, they have to look for additional opportunities.

Huijbregts said this was a competitive package as it did not require people to have a background in cybersecurity at all.