Skills / Labour Force – Quantum-Safe Canada

Migrating to quantum-safe cryptography – will you have the staff to do the additional new work required?

"The next generation of computing power – driven by quantum properties – is looming, along with the associated quantum threat to cybersecurity. The significant pool quantum-safe cybersecurity expertise needed to prepare for and respond this new threat is not available and will take time to develop."

Canada and Canadian organizations lack the required skills to address the quantum threat and its associated risks – see our report, Quantum-Safe Talent and Job Market Analysis, 2021. There is a troubling shortage of quantum-safe skills within the current cybersecurity workforce and within the current pool of students in Canada’s post-secondary cybersecurity programs. Given this, it is clear that action is called for in the educational arena.

Quantum-Safe Canada has developed a curriculum guide for educators, organizations and corporate trainers. The document, Organizational Migration to Quantum-Safe Cryptography: A Role-Based Framework, Learning Outcomes, and Curriculum Model, is designed to do the following:

Support training upskilling the existing workforce to deal with the migration to quantum-safe cryptography
Provide guidance to educational institutions on how to incorporate this into their current cybersecurity programs.

The curriculum guide focuses on four broad organizational work roles that would be involved ensuring the security of its organizational data:

Senior leaders who have leadership and fiduciary responsibilities for the organization
Technical advisors who have responsibility for effective and efficient technical infrastructure
Business advisors that provide business advice to senior leaders on business activities including necessary organizational technology, processes, procedures and resources
Technical workforce that can support design, develop, integrate, implement, security and lifecycle support for information technology (IT), operational technology (OT) or other technical infrastructure, systems and devices – including the internet of things (IoT).

For a copy of the curriculum guide, please send a request to info@quantum-safe.ca.

A copy of QSC’s earlier foundational report, Organization Migration to Quantum-Safe Cryptography: A Role-Based Framework, Learning Outcomes, and Curriculum Model (March 2022), is also available to interested parties.