KMC’s Cyber Security Training project receives overwhelming response

Kathmandu, Jan. 18

The Cyber Security Training project announced by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has drawn the tremendous attention of youth and witnessed the fill-out of 1032 forms in 24 hours till Thursday evening while 8,855 people have shown interest in the skill development programme in the past three days.

According to the KMC, this is an overwhelming response to the programme which also exhibited that there was a huge gap in Information and Communication Technology and cyber security.

The metropolis has designed 43 courses on digital technology and cyber security in seven categories such as basics of cyber security, information privacy, programming and networking, cloud networking and data analysis.

The training designed as an open online course has different modules and courses ranging from 16.5 hours for beginners to 100 hours, said Nisarg H. Acharya, Vice-President of EC-Council, a company providing technical and knowledge support to the KMC for the training.

The EC-Council collaborates with its Nepal-based partner, Gap Technologies, to manage the contents as well as the technical side of the training as planned by the KMC.

KMC and its partners said that the training aimed at creating a workforce that would fit the demands of global companies. The trainings are designed for Information Technology literate to university degree holders. The trainees can get certificates after fulfilling the assessment and certification criteria of the courses.

The training will be organised online and will be free of cost. The trainees are required to attend the designated class hours, complete the readings of materials and appear in the assessment exams.

"Our cursory assessment found that many employees working at the government and private sector offices and teachers urgently needed training on cyber security. Although the higher officials are well-trained, the lower-rank employees can be vulnerable points for hackers and other criminals, and cyber security of the company could be compromised," said Shailendra Jha, an Expert Member of the City Planning Council (CPC) of the KMC.

The skill development project aims at producing or developing competing and skilled human resources for companies from various sectors both public and private. Jha said that the project was an initiative to protect people's privacy and protect them as well as companies from cyber-related risks.

The KMC and partners are responding to the need for employed workforce as well as young students, job seekers and returnee migrants who are desperate to equip themselves with better cyber security skills. These skills include identifying spam emails, malware, spyware and misinformation as well as the knowledge of ethical hacking, said Acharya.

"Every job has become digital and needs to be done through the application of information and cyber technology. Adopting these digital initiatives needs better security and skilled workers," he said while adding that individuals are highly vulnerable to cyber-crimes and internet-based risks.

Likewise, Jha said that the training would help youth stay in the country while working in a company anywhere across the globe.

The total cost of the cyber security training project is estimated at Rs. 50 million. Prince Khetan, CEO and Co-Founder of Gap Technologies, said that the training could be a long-term project and expected to raise awareness as well as the skills about cyber security.

This project is a part of the KMC's ambitious pride project on employment which aims at training at least 15,000 people in 34 thematic areas in the next three years as envisioned by its Mayor Balendra Shah, and creating jobs for 5,000 people in a year.

Other areas of training that have been launched are software development, beautician, digital marketing and professional accounting. Other disciplines will be added according to the demand.

"We want to create solutions for both the job providers and job seekers. It will supply full-time and part-time workforce to the companies through the 'Labour Bank'," said Jha.

The government, national and international non-government agencies, private sector companies and other organisations will be provided access to the labour bank where they can choose the human resources that fit into their job demand.

Residents of the KMC or its taxpayers, and Nepali citizens having rental accommodations in Kathmandu Metropolis are the primary target of the training while other Nepalis are considered as the secondary target. 

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 19 January 2024.