Master’s funding will increase number of women in cyber security workforce
20 February 2025
Five women have undertaken their Master’s in Cyber Security and in Cyber Security & Technology with funded places, thanks to a collaboration between Cardiff Capital Region and Cardiff University’s Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education.
Using Shared Prosperity funding, Cardiff University’s Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education offered funded places to female students on a full-time Master’s degree programme, plus networking and mentoring opportunities through Wales Women in Cyber, to create clearer pathways for women into cyber security careers.
5 women
jointly funded by the UK Government and Cardiff Capital Region via the Shared Prosperity Fund.
17%
of cyber workforce is female according to the 2024 DSIT report on Cyber security skills in the UK labour market.
100%
guaranteed job interviews to all participants through the programme.
This funding is invested in nurturing all-rounded future leaders for the cyber security and tech sectors in Wales. With multiple success stories from our graduates from the previous three cohorts, I am confident that we will see more of CCR-funded graduates in leadership roles in cyber security in the future and that a fair proportion of these future leaders will be women.
As people spend more of their lives in digital spaces, cyber security systems are increasingly important to protect individuals, organisations, and governments. Proactive measures can prevent cyber-criminals from accessing sensitive information, personal data, accounts, and devices. Recent research by Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) indicates that in 2024, 44% of businesses had a basic skills gap in cyber security and 390,000 businesses had an advanced skills gap. Diversity in the field is still lacking with women accounting for only 17% of the workforce.
There is great strength in joining together as an eco-system. Together, we can explore the current challenges and threats, and diversity of thought is a very important part of this: where there are cyber security problems, we should throw as much expertise at them as we possibly can as this ensures all possible solutions are explored.
In 2024-2025, Cardiff University joined the Cluster Development & Growth Programme (CDGP) led by Cardiff and Vale College which aims to support Cardiff Capital Region's priority clusters: Fintech, MedTech, Creative, Cybersecurity and Compound Semiconductors. The role of the Cardiff University’s Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education in this programme is to diversity the cyber security workforce and encourage more women into cyber security.
This project is supported and managed by the Cardiff University's Digital Transformation Innovation Institute who shares the stewardship of the Centre for Cyber Education with the School of Computer Science & Informatics. This project is possible thanks to the Cluster Development & Growth Programme supported by the Shared Prosperity Fund - a jointly funded initiative between the UK Government and the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR).
Studying Cyber Security and Technology at Cardiff University.