East Midlands Cyber Security Cluster
Cyber Workforce of the Future: Our route to a single UK cyber skills taxonomy
EMCSC’s policy work on cyber skills centres around our Cyber Workforce of the Future White Paper, which links our original skills taxonomy to national change.
Industry-qualified thinking
The White Paper emerged from qualitative research and stakeholder engagement with leading industry professionals and experts.
Data was collected during round tables conducted as we completed our CyberSprint programme in 2024. The purpose of the sessions was to examine how to build a sustainable cyber workforce for the UK. It captures lived experience from education, industry, small business, and government partners – shaping programme learnings into a national conversation about skills and workforce gaps.
CyberSprint gave EMCSC a dual vantage point: evidence from schools, learners, and employers was aligned with direct feedback from UK-level leaders working on strategies to implement cyber in practice. It is a combination which underpins the credibility of the White Paper’s recommendations and its focus on a clear, implementable skills taxonomy for the UK.
A practical skills taxonomy
Our White Paper is a qualitative and actionable blueprint.
It recommends the introduction of a unified UK cyber skills taxonomy which is designed to replace today’s fragmented language and pathways. It warns that – without a shared national framework to operate to – employers, educators, and policymakers are struggling to align job roles, qualifications and progression routes.
The paper proposes practical steps to address this. As well as a centrally-led taxonomy development process, there are calls for clearer mapping between roles and learning, as well as incentives for employers to use skills‑based recruitment and progression.
The aim is to move from strategy documents to a usable framework that can be adopted across sectors. You can read it in full here.
Working with
APPG and UK stakeholder backing
EMCSC developed the White Paper in collaboration with the All‑Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Cyber Innovation. We wanted to work with Parliamentarians to turn our regional findings into Westminster policy.
The APPG’s backing helped position the paper as a credible contribution to national cyber skills discussions.
Meanwhile, industry, academic and professional partners have also engaged with the recommendations. This has included Westminster events, conference sessions and media coverage.
The coalition has helped frame the White Paper as a call to action for a more coordinated, future‑ready cyber workforce.
From White Paper to Cyber Action Plan
The White Paper’s ideas feed directly into both the UK Industrial Strategy and the Cyber Action Plan. It does so by operationalising a shared skills taxonomy and improving cross‑sector coordination.
EMCSC’s role is always to develop a bridge between national policymaking and regional delivery – through programmes such as CyberSprint and CyberGrowth.
By combining evidence from real industry professionals with policy‑focused recommendations, EMCSC is helping ensure that national plans for the cyber workforce are grounded in what actually works on the ground.
The White Paper is both a reference document and a practical roadmap for implementation.
Gaining national representation
Relationships built through CyberGrowth and the White Paper process have strengthened EMCSC’s voice in national forums. As well as the support we have received from colleagues at the APPG for Cyber Innovation, there has been much interest from a wide range of stakeholders.
That trajectory is reflected in Dr Ismini Vasileiou’s invitation to join DSIT’s Women in Tech Taskforce. Formed by the Right Honourable Liz Kendall MP in December 2025, it brings together senior female leaders to address and advise on barriers facing women looking to pursue technology careers.
Dr Vasileiou’s role on the taskforce connects EMCSC’s skills and inclusion agenda directly to government decision‑making, especially around representation, progression, and leadership in cyber and wider tech.
It also reinforces a core message of the White Paper: that the UK’s cyber workforce must be diverse, trained to a single framework, and regionally grounded if it is to meet 21st‑Century challenges.
Read our White Paper
Cyber Workforce of the Future: Why the UK needs a skills taxonomy now can be read in full online.