Our Standard for Professional Competence and Commitment (UK CSC SPCC) will enable employers to identify the people they need to manage their cyber risks and meet their regulatory obligations. It will help professionals navigate the complex world of existing qualifications, certifications, and courses. By setting an overarching professional standard and defining four professional titles, we will help make the equivalence of cyber security qualifications clear.
Cyber security is a maturing profession, with a range of areas that require specialist insight, development and practice. The Council’s Professional Standard and Registration Titles will bring structure and unity to the profession accordingly, and a level of consistent professional recognition, already embedded in fields such as engineering, audit and medicine.
Organisation Benefits:
Regulatory Compliance and Ethical Practice
Regulatory compliance and ethical practice are key pillars in the cyber security sector. The Government wants the Council’s standard to become a measure used to assess compliance by regulators across the UK. Regulators need to assess whether regulated entities have sufficiently invested in their cyber workforce to maintain cyber resilience.
The Council’s standard is an effective measure of this resilience. Alongside the standard, the Council’s Ethical Declaration sets out a code of conduct for businesses and guiding principles for individuals on how to practice ethically. Each Council registrant will sign the Ethical Declaration, agreeing to promote credibility, integrity and professionalism. This will serve as assurance that those awarded Professional Registration Titles are both ethical and compliant.
Helping employers of cyber practitioners
Hiring decisions are the most important decisions that organisations make. In cyber security they are loaded with risk, as assessing competence is challenging. Employers who seek robust recruitment and development processes will use the UK Cyber Security Council’s standard for assurance that they are employing high quality, experienced practitioners.
The Government Security Group is one example of an employer seeking this kind of assurance, and it is actively looking to align its recruitment frameworks to the Council’s standard, as the specialisms are released. Recruitment, progression, and career growth for individuals can be accelerated by engagement with the Council’s Professional Registration Titles – Associate, Principal and Chartered.
Helping customers of cyber services
Customers of cyber services often struggle to determine quality in the market: what does good look like? How has this been assessed? Do assessments have equivalence? Chartership will ensure an easy way to identify this for companies of all sizes. The need for this is particularly acute for the UK Government - the largest customer for cyber security services in the UK.
Government is seeking to integrate the Council’s standard into public sector procurement processes, similar to what has been achieved with Cyber Essentials, to help customers validate the competence of a company’s cyber resilience. The standard will enable clear assessment of those bidding for Government contracts. Aligning yourself to the standard will help your organisation prove the quality of your services.
A Global Standard
Professionalising the cyber security workforce is not just a UK programme, it is the direction of travel for many like-minded states across the globe. Governments in other countries are increasingly looking at how best to assure professional competence and the UK government is pursuing mutual recognition of the Council standard internationally.
Chartership with the UK Cyber Security Council will provide global credibility and give professionals an easy way to demonstrate equivalent competence when moving between countries.
Influence and Prestige
The Council’s standard, governance and institutional architecture will be led by cyber security professionals with Council titles. The UK Government is working towards the Council standard being the only Government-recognised quality mark for the UK cyber workforce. To shape the profession, you need to be part of it.
Benefits for Career Development:
Provide confidence and assurance of your knowledge and skills to employers, clients, and the public
Prove credibility with peers, improve your career prospects and your employability
Provide proof that your professional skills have been acquired in a work-based environment – with critical awareness
Enhance your CV meaning greater opportunity for career progression and increasing earning potential
Demonstrate that you are working to achieve the cyber security needs of today and the aspirations of tomorrow
Act as a guarantee of your commitment to professional standards such as the Council’s code of conduct, practice, and ethics
Prove an ongoing commitment to continuous professional development to ensure your expertise and competence evolves, is up to date and relevant
Indicate that your competence and commitment is rigorously peer-reviewed
Align your experience and expertise in your specialism of cyber security to a nationally recognised standard of competence
Demonstrate that you belong to a network of respected and prestigious cyber security specialists
