Fortinet Extends Free NSE Security Training Courses to Close Industry’s Skills Gap

With the unprecedented increase of teleworkers in 2020, the need for securing remote networks and users became a top priority for organizations. IT teams with little manpower found it difficult to fill important security positions, made worse by the challenge of securely transitioning to remote work.

The cybersecurity skills gap continues to pose multiple challenges for organizations dealing with an expanding attack surface and a growing number of security alerts. Organizations simply cannot acquire the cybersecurity talent required to address their biggest security challenges. Between an increasingly complex threat landscape, the growing cybersecurity skills gap, and the importance of securing remote networks, organizations are struggling to ensure effective security across all their infrastructures.

To help address this challenge, organizations must shift their mindset away from traditional hiring and work to implement new, agile solutions that leverage untapped resources. Organizations should invest in reskilling and upskilling current employees and expanding their hiring targets to effectively help bridge the skills gap. Cybersecurity is a viable career option for those looking to change careers or those reentering the workforce after an absence, like veterans. Cybersecurity training and certification programs should be accessible to veterans and those seeking return-to-work programs. Organizations should also invest in their own employees who already have technical skills and backgrounds by providing them with cybersecurity specific training and continuing education. By enrolling members of their IT teams in upskilling programs, organizations can help fill security talent shortages from within their own employee pool. To help organizations achieve this, Fortinet is extending the availability of the NSE free trainingcourses beyond 2021.    

Fortinet’s Continued Pursuit to Close the Skills Gap

In April 2020, Fortinet addressed the need to further build security expertise by making all its self-paced courses from the Network Security Expert (NSE) Training Institute available for free to all. The Fortinet NSE Training Institute programs provide IT professionals, students, veterans and more the opportunity to expand and learn new security skillsets, opening doors to the field of cybersecurity.

Since making more than 30 courses available for free to anyone worldwide, there have been more than 800,000 registration for the free training courses. Given the demand and interest in the company’s free training in 2020, Fortinet’s advanced self-paced courses will remain available free of charge beyond 2021 to continue developing the world’s cyber workforce of the future.

Developing the Cyber Workforce with Free Training

By extending access to its NSE free training courses, Fortinet is creating more career pathways for anyone wanting to advance their security knowledge or start a career in cybersecurity. Fortinet’s free training initiative provides learners with the following:

• More than 30 courses on topics ranging from secure SD-WAN to opeational technology (OT) security to cloud security with more courses expected to be added throughout the year.
• Pre-recorded lab demos by cybersecurity experts available for on-demand viewing.
• Preparation for NSE Certification exams. Most of the free courses are based on official curriculum for the Fortinet NSE Certification Program. Fortinet’s Certification Program is an eight-level program that has issued more than half a million certifications.
• Continuing Professional Credits through a partnership with (ISC)2. Individuals can use their free training completion – as well as any NSE training course – to gain Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for CISSP and other (ISC)2 designations. Learners earn one credit for every hour of NSE Training Institutetraining they do with Fortinet.

Fortinet’s NSE Training Institute

In addition to the free training initiative, the NSE Training Institute addresses the industry’s skills gap by developing career pathways for security professionals, students, veterans and more through its Security Academy Program, Certification Program and Veterans Program.

The Security Academy Program supports more than 300 academic institutions in more than 80 different countries. Through this program, Fortinet gives participants access to Fortinet’s NSE training and Certification Program curriculum to prepare them for a career in cybersecurity. Fortinet’s Veterans Program helps veterans and military families develop skills, reskill, or upskill to enter a career in cybersecurity. With its eight levels of certification, the NSE Certification Program effectively bridges the cybersecurity skills gap, from cybersecurity fundamental education courses (NSE 1-3), technical product training (NSE 4-6), advanced solution-based training (NSE 7) and the cybersecurity expert recognition (NSE 8). 

The NSE Training Institute has become a global leader in cybersecurity training, education and skills development. This has resulted in a large ecosystem of NSE Training Institute partners who help to provide the industry with a diverse, equitable and inclusive pipeline of security professionals.

Find out more about Fortinet’s NSE Training Institute programs, including the Certification Program, Security Academy Program and Veterans Program, which provides critical cybersecurity training and education to help solve the cyber skills gap and prepare the cybersecurity workforce of tomorrow.