Tesserent has named John Barnett as the new head of its skills and training division, Tesserent Academy.
The division was launched in April last year to address cybersecurity industry skills shortages.
It joined forces with the Melbourne Business School and the TAFE sector to create programs that provide cybersecurity skills “from the boardroom to the basement,” Tesserent’s then co-chief executive Julian Challingsworth told CRN at the time.
“The Academy is a huge opportunity not just for our own staff, but also our customers. We need our businesses to be more cyber aware and we want to help the workforce understand the cyber risks. We need a skilled workforce but there are skill shortages so it’s on us to address that and uplift local capability.”
He added that these investments were part of a holistic strategy to bring about improvements to the entire Australian security ecosystem, aiming to raise the level of the industry as a whole.
“The more success stories we can get in Australia, the more it aligns with our strategy of Aussies protecting Aussie assets.”
As well as providing technical training for Tesserent solutions, the division works with the C-suite and board members of organisations to improve their cyber awareness.
The company’s current boss Kurt Hansen said in a statement to shareholders that he was “delighted to announce that John Barnett has been appointed to the helm of Tesserent Academy, which is designed to tackle the industry-wide problem of talent shortages, to improve the cyber ecosystem and to develop talent for both Tesserent and our customers”.
Barnett joins Tesserent after ten years with TAFE NSW, where he was most recently in charge of developing talent for the technology sector. He also worked at piloting education initiatives, working with state and federal governments, peak bodies and industry to drive improvements in education curriculum, frameworks, pathways and outcomes.
Barnett said he was “excited to be spearheading Tesserent’s activity to uplift industry cybersecurity skills and to encourage more females and people from a range of diverse backgrounds, and across all age levels, to pursue careers in cybersecurity”.
“Tesserent has an incredible depth of cyber expertise, and the Tesserent Academy presents a great opportunity to leverage that capability to build innovative cyber training programs and pathways that are designed and delivered by leading industry experts.”.ADVERTISING
The Tesserent Academy will also work to collaborate with state and federal governments to provide a pathway and employment opportunities, as well as with the high school sector to increase overall engagement and uptake within the tech sector.