SIA signs an agreement with the University of Barcelona to train future cybersecurity experts
Roberto Espina, CEO of SIA, the Indra Group company specialising in cybersecurity, has signed an agreement with Jan Rosés, executive director of ENTI - University of Barcelona (ENTI-UB), to collaborate in the practical training of students on the first official degree in Cybersecurity in Catalonia.
ENTI-UB, a private centre for higher technological education affiliated to the University of Barcelona, launched this training programme at the beginning of the 2024-2025 academic year. Its objective is to reinforce specialisation in the field of ICT and, in this specific case, Information Security, in order to respond to the high demand for professionals in a growing sector; according to recent data from Incibe, Spain needs some 99,000 cybersecurity experts to face the cyberthreats of an increasingly connected world.
The agreement takes the form of external academic placements at SIA through a training project per student. In this way, students on the Cybersecurity degree course at ENTI-UB, in their first contact with a digitalised labour market, will learn about the methods, tools and strategies used to protect all kinds of organisations. The initiative also envisages the expansion of future collaboration with actions such as classes, lectures and other training activities by the Indra Group.
During the signing of this collaboration agreement, held yesterday afternoon at the Seminari Conciliar in Barcelona, where ENTI-UB has the cybersecurity study rooms and laboratory, the CEO of SIA stated that, ‘to be a cybersecurity professional in our country, you need extra specialisation outside of formal training and constant updating. Like other booming and developing technological fields, such as AI, Big Data or 5G, the cybersecurity sector is growing and will continue to grow’. “Given the forecasts”, explained Roberto Espina, “at SIA, we are investing in enhancing the attraction and training of professionals with different levels of experience. We firmly believe that this is essential to meet the needs of the market and enable a secure digital transformation for organisations”.
High demand for specialists in Catalonia
The cybersecurity sector in Catalonia grew by 16% compared to the previous year, the highest figure in the historical series, according to the report La ciberseguretat en Catalunya (Cybersecurity in Catalonia) that the Agència de Ciberseguretat de Catalunya (Cybersecurity Agency of Catalonia) and the Acció agency presented last year.
The study also reveals that this autonomous region was the third EU region to attract the most foreign investment projects in 2023. In total, it attracted more than 66 million euros and enabled the creation of 400 new jobs.
SIA, which has more than 2,000 experts and is the largest Spanish company specialising in cybersecurity, is in the process of expanding in Catalonia, reinforcing its response to the cybersecurity demands of companies in the region and its commitment to local talent for its growth. Under this agreement, it is preparing to offer its first work experience to ENTI-UB students, who will be the future professionals of the cybersecurity ecosystem; according to the Agència de Ciberseguretat de Catalunya, more than 10,000 new experts are required to cover all the demand.
The Indra company has a proven track record of training students in the discipline of cybersecurity. Every year, SIA trains and incorporates nearly 500 professionals with an established model called Cyber-Capacities Talent Camp. In addition, its talent attraction is based on agreements with educational centres which, after the signing of the agreement with the University of Barcelona, amount to 27 with universities and 23 with vocational training centres; in collaborations with entities specialised in cybersecurity for training and certification of personnel; in outsourced training; and headhunters, for highly specialised profiles.