Randstad, CISCO partner to attract military veterans to cybersecurity careers

Dive Brief:

Randstad US and CISCO will team up to attract military veterans to technology careers, particularly in areas with huge talent gaps such as cybersecurity, the pair announced last week.
Specifically, CISCO will combine its CyberVets USA training program with Randstad’s career resources and recruitment services to provide military veterans with training that can lead to tech jobs. According to CISCO, CyberVetsUSA trains 200 to 300 veterans a year. Randstad said vets will have access to a Randstad recruiter, a service that updates resumes and a three-month career development and transition service.
"Military veterans transitioning into civilian life are well-positioned to be upskilled for jobs like security analysts, digital forensics analysts, network auditors — some of which can pay more than three times the national salary average," said Karin Childress, national director of the Veteran Center of Excellence for Randstad US, in a media release.

Dive Insight:

Experts say military veterans are an under-tapped talent pool that could fill many of the jobs today's skills gap has left vacant, particularly in specialty areas like cybersecurity. In fact, a report from Burning Glass Technologies found that while tech hiring is up, it hasn’t kept pace with the demand for experts in cybersecurity and other areas.

Collaborations like Randstad and CISCO’s are addressing American veterans’ unemployment. And although a new LinkedIn report found that unemployment is down overall among veterans, veterans remain 34% more likely to be underemployed compared to the nonveteran population. The problem, according to the report, is that employers and recruiters often pigeon-hole veterans into specific job categories, failing to take into account any changes they want to make from their previous military duties. To help mitigate the problem, HR and recruiting professionals can look for transferrable skills that allow veterans to fill vacancies, in much the same way they’re relaxing skills requirements for nonveterans to broaden the talent pool.