Education Outreach Program
Cultivating partnerships to drive a skilled, inclusive, and diverse cybersecurity workforce
The Fortinet Education Outreach Program Aims to Reach All Populations
As part of the Fortinet Training Institute, the Education Outreach Program works with global leaders to drive change on pressing cybersecurity issues. Our partnerships extend to industry, academia, government, and nonprofits to ensure we are reaching all populations. By providing opportunities for training, certification, and connecting individuals with the Fortinet employer ecosystem, we're working to help close the cybersecurity skills gap.
The Need for Diversity and Inclusion in Cybersecurity
According to the 2023 ICS2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, there is a global cybersecurity workforce gap of almost 4 million people. While the size of the global cybersecurity workforce is still growing and is estimated at 5.5 million, the gap continues to grow as well, up 13% from last year.
Focus on Veterans
The Fortinet Veterans Program provides cybersecurity training and certification to veterans and military spouses to help transition individuals from their military careers. Veterans in particular are often considered to already have the right training, orientation and discipline for work in a security context, possessing a defense mentality.
The program works closely with military and veteran nonprofit organizations to connect with veterans and military families around the world. These nonprofits are integral in Fortinet’s effort to help the military community to transition to careers in cybersecurity.
Focus on Women and Minorities
The growth of Fortinet’s Training Institute includes partnerships with organizations focused on women and minorities. According to the 2021 ICS2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, women made up approximately 25% of the study cybersecurity workforce participants and an ICS2 minority cybersecurity study indicates minority representation within the cybersecurity profession is 26%.
Fortinet partners with various organizations to make cybersecurity training more accessible and provides no cost opportunities for industry certifications for its member organizations.
Focus on Students
Through the Academic Partner Program, Fortinet supports almost 673 institutions in 99 different countries and territories. These academic institutions range from students in K-12 all the way to higher education and research institutions. Through the program, institutions are given access to Fortinet’s NSE Certification Program content to integrate into their own curriculum. They also receive exam vouchers to prepare students for a career in cybersecurity and help develop the next-generation of cybersecurity professionals.
Learn more about the Academic Partner ProgramFocus on K-12 Schools
Fortinet offers a free education-focused version of its Security Awareness and Training service to all K-12 school districts and systems in the U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, and Brazil and is expanding this offer into other countries.
Raising Cyber Awareness in Young Children
Fortinet recently released a children’s book designed to further increase cyber awareness among children from 7 to 12 years old. The book Cyber Safe: A Dog’s Guide to Internet Security was co-authored by Renee Tarun, Deputy CISO at Fortinet.
Read tips on keeping kids safe online
Free Training for Everyone
To continue developing the world’s cyber workforce, Fortinet has made all of our advanced self-paced courses available free of charge. First introduced in early 2020, the free cybersecurity training courses include more than 30 self-paced, technical courses on critical topics ranging from Secure SD-WAN to Operational Technology to cloud security. To date, there have been more than 1,300,000 registrations for these free courses.
The training courses count toward the ISC2 CPE Submitter Program and the NSE Certification Program, which has five proficiency levels with 11 certifications. Each certification level aims to assess specific levels of cybersecurity expertise, from foundation to architect.
Learn moreTraining in Local Languages / Respecting Language and Culture
Fortinet Authorized Training Centers (ATCs) provide a global network of training facilities that deliver expert-level training in local languages. Fortinet has 119 ATCs worldwide and is continuing to expand the locations of the training center partners to further the reach of NSE training. Fortinet ATCs are currently teaching in more than 150 countries and territories and can deliver training and local cultural support in 26 different languages.
