Fortinet : Will Continue Offering Free Cybersecurity Training Courses to Close Industry’s Skills Gap

With the increase of teleworkers in 2020, the need for securing remote networks and users became a top priority for organizations. IT teams that were already finding it difficult to fill security positions due to the skills gap found it especially challenging as they looked to securely transition to a remote workforce. In April 2020, Fortinet addressed this 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.

Since making more than 30 courses available for free to anyone worldwide, there have been more than 800,000 registrations for the free training courses. Given the demand and interest in the company's free cybersecurity 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 Cybersecurity Training

By extending access to its NSE free cybersecurity 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 cybersecurity 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 cybersecurity 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).

Tackling the Skills Gap Through an Extensive Global Ecosystem

As both a technology company and a learning organization, Fortinet has a longstanding commitment to forming global partnerships to further address the cyber skills gap and advance information sharing critical to tackling today's sophisticated threats. Fortinet is a founding member of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Centre for Cybersecurity and the Cyber Threat Alliance. Through these collaborations with global leaders from private and public sectors, Fortinet is looking to deliver a response to the growing sophisticated cybersecurity threats while closing the skills gap. Fortinet also partners with the NATO Communications and Information Agency and is a member of an expert working group within INTERPOL to further innovate and develop powerful global solutions to reduce global cyber attacks.

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 provide critical cybersecurity training and education to help solve the cyber skills gap and prepare the cybersecurity workforce of tomorrow.

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