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United Kingdom Businesses Technology

UK Government Scraps Ad That Encouraged People Working in the Arts To Reskill by Turning To a Career in Cybersecurity (theguardian.com) 91

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
sandbagger writes: A government-backed advert that encouraged people working in the arts to reskill by turning to a career in cybersecurity has been scrapped after the culture secretary described it as "crass." On Monday morning Oliver Dowden distanced himself from the Cyber First campaign, which resurfaced on the same day his department was celebrating awarding $338 million in funding to struggling venues and organisations. Dowden tweeted that the ad campaign, which is backed by the government and promotes retraining in tech, did not come from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), while reiterating that he wanted to "save jobs in the arts." The advert depicts a ballet dancer tying her shoes, with the caption "Fatima's next job could be in tech," which critics said was in bad taste considering thousands of jobs are being lost in the culture sector. The campaign promises to equip people "with the essential cyber skills needed to set you on a rewarding career path."
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UK Government Scraps Ad That Encouraged People Working in the Arts To Reskill by Turning To a Career in Cybersecurity More

UK Government Scraps Ad That Encouraged People Working in the Arts To Reskill by Turning To a Career in Cybersecurity

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  • We pay they scrap.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Remember the board game, Life? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rmdingler ( 1955220 ) on Monday October 12, 2020 @03:23PM (#60600324) Journal

    Careers in the arts pay less, on average, than other vocational pursuits. The Economic Value of College Majors [georgetown.edu] is a good reference:

    STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), health, and business majors are the highest paying, leading to average annual wages of $37,000 or more at the entry level and an average of $65,000 or more annually over the course of a recipient’s career.

    The 10 majors with the lowest median earnings are: early childhood education ($39,000); human services and community organization ($41,000); studio arts, social work, teacher education, and visual and performing arts ($42,000); theology and religious vocations, and elementary education ($43,000); drama and theater arts and family and community service ($45,000).

    You have to be able to make a living, but loving what you do may be more important than your lifetime dollar score.

    • Re:Remember the board game, Life? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday October 12, 2020 @03:28PM (#60600340) Homepage Journal

      We need artists and art and if we let it all wither away we will be immeasurably diminished.

      Also the arts are one of our biggest and few remaining domestic industries, particularly video games and movie production.

      • Re:Remember the board game, Life? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Train0987 ( 1059246 ) on Monday October 12, 2020 @03:37PM (#60600374)

        Artists and art somehow existed before they were given money extracted from taxpayers.

        • Which is why so much of historical art is religious. Think about it

        • Re:Remember the board game, Life? (Score:4, Informative)

          by youngone ( 975102 ) on Monday October 12, 2020 @05:14PM (#60600720)

          Artists and art somehow existed before they were given money extracted from taxpayers.

          The country I live in decided several years ago that we would attract movie producers, because that seemed like a good, high value sort of industry to attract that would employ people.
          Of course, the big studios have been playing that game since forever, and now every big movie that gets made here has 25% of its production costs funded by taxpayers.
          It is not the artists with their hands out, its massively profitable production houses. In fact Warners are so terrified of their workers that they demanded the workers lose the right to collectively bargain, or take industrial action.

        • You'd be looking back a very very long time for that. Artists living off the patronage of the states has been a staple for the field going back well past feudal times.

        • Yes, but there is also a very long tradition in which those who govern patronize the arts. Is a feudal lord commissioning works of art the same as a democratic government providing grants? I'd say it's pretty much the same.

        • It's probably because "art" more than likely originated from a proto-stew of engineering and craftsmanship and decoration. You had to have some level of technical ability akin to engineering to know to make pottery from dirt, you had to have some skill to actually make a pot that wasn't just a lump of material with a hollow bit in the top, and at the end of it all you maybe marked it to show who it belonged to or who made it, which meant before literacy you decorated it somehow with patterns, colors or dra

      • We need artists and art

        True. But we don't need professional artists. Art is something anyone can do. Isn't that what the whole deconstructionist/post-modern movement was about?

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by jbengt ( 874751 )

          But we don't need professional artists.

          Among professional artists are graphics artists, photographers, musicians, comic book artists (pencillers, inkers, and colorists), etc. You might reason that we don't need some of those because we could live like people did 3,000 years ago, but we wouldn't need software engineers then, either.

          • Apparently my sarcasm wasn't obvious. The "Isn't that" sentence was the barb.

            PS: Comic book artists wasn't a very good example of a "need".

        • Art is something anyone can do. Isn't that what the whole deconstructionist/post-modern movement was about?

          Only if you like really crap art. There is, I suppose, something amusing about amateurish splodges on canvas, but the amusement soon wears off. There is also a certain talent required to take the piss in true post-modern style. Not just any old rubbish will do.

        • Anyone can do art, but art that is bought&sold on the art market and by the art institutions is not made by just anybody. A professionnal artist needs to know the codes of the culture they work in, needs to promote their work, needs to meet and convince the right people that his work is going to be "the next big thing", etc. Many artists also outsource part of their work to third parties (note: this is as old as the art world, in the "art workshop" of the Renaissance era the Master would paint a couple

        • > Art is something anyone can do

          Apparently also true of "cyber" ;-)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      To point out what should be bloody obvious but that everyone seems in complete denial of. What is the IQ required for a ballet dancer, the minimum to be able to do that job. What is the IQ required for a computer system security specialists who needs to keep up to date on all computer systems security, every day.

      The difference in pay between skills, not the training, that is a lie, the difference is down to numbers of applicable people, STEM demands a higher IQ, much higher and the numbers are much fewer an

      • I bet there are more people capable of being a good engineer than being a good ballerina.

      • To point out what should be bloody obvious but that everyone seems in complete denial of. What is the IQ required for a ballet dancer, the minimum to be able to do that job. What is the IQ required for a computer system security specialists who needs to keep up to date on all computer systems security, every day.

        I'd say the IQ required to be a good ballet dancer is quite high. You need a level of body control that the average person doesn't have, and that means an excellent brain, and that means a high IQ. Or go elsewhere, what do you think the IQ of Arnold Schwarzenegger is? The guy managed to make his way from a backward village in Austria to the USA, had a hugely successful career as a body builder, then had a hugely successful career as an actor, then had a hugely successful career as a politician. Estimated IQ

  • Oops (Score:3)

    by Tailhook ( 98486 ) on Monday October 12, 2020 @03:24PM (#60600330)

    Someone let some candor escape. Can't have that.

  • I can really imagine this ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xwin ( 848234 ) on Monday October 12, 2020 @03:27PM (#60600336)
    One day I am a barista with a liberal arts degree and the next day I am finding security flaws in the Apple T2 chip! Skills are like completely the same. Cybersecurity is not a all hard, that is why all of our networks and devices are so secure and not susceptible to any issues.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Tailhook ( 98486 )

      You're not allowing for job title inflation. Working in "Cybersecurity" can be as mundane as taking help desk calls to recover passwords. If you can handle PKI artifacts or manage a JVM truststore you are a Senior Cybersecurity "expert."

    • Re:I can really imagine this ... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday October 12, 2020 @04:35PM (#60600568) Homepage Journal

      A lot of it is low level stuff. Check for viruses, install some apps, explain to the users not to click on every random link in an email...

      These are not good, well paid jobs. It's glorified tech support.

    • "One day I am a barista with a liberal arts degree and the next day I am finding security flaws in the Apple T2 chip! "

      No, you let them live their security-flawy lives free in their natural habitat, the Apple T2 chip.

    • Ballet to cybersecurity for "next job" sure is a jump. I've worked with multiple experienced network engineers trying to work their way into security. The basic theme of what I suggest is to start by focusing on security-related networking tickets and projects such as firewalls and such. That and work with the security team in things.

      The level 2 helpdesk people are trying to get on the networking team.

      The ballet dancer might be able to get a job as level 1 helpdesk. With a plan to join the security team i

    • Is that "computer stuff" is so simple that clearly anyone can be easily retrained to become an expert - and at the same time there is still so much need for more experts in what is clearly a profitable profession.
      Otherwise, why advertise it, right?

      Truly a magical profession, computer stuff.
      Easy to learn, pays good money, endless demand for workforce...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Cederic ( 9623 )

      Oh, it's worse than that. The outrage is at the suggestion that a beautiful artiste should have to sully her delicate hands with dirty smelly IT work.

      Thanks art world, it's nice to know that you hate the people that fund you.

      • You know who can't make your morning espresso, perform live at the pub after work, or appear in the local film industry? An outsourcer from the parent's offshore division.

  • Arts to security... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by swilver ( 617741 ) on Monday October 12, 2020 @03:28PM (#60600342)

    Luckily security is an easy field that doesn't benefit from years of experience...

  • Could be in cyber (Score:5, Funny)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Monday October 12, 2020 @03:28PM (#60600346) Homepage Journal

    Why does TFS say "could be in tech" when the pic says "could be in cyber"?

    Anyway, it doesn't specify what "cyber" means to them. It could be cyber-sexwork. VR is very hot right now. The culture secretary isn't necessarily saying Fatima will leave the arts.

    • Could be cybernetics -- things like robots and industrial automation, rather than doing things on the internet. I can imagine a ballet dancer having some insight into linked 3D rotations that some geek sitting in a basement doesn't, though it might take some time (or rather, cooperation) to translate that into math and code.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Cederic ( 9623 )

        There's certainly scope for motion capture work. People with tremendous control over their body movements could perhaps more easily provide game animators with a wider range of options that are demonstrably achieveable by the human form.

  • I'm not saying as a job. Still plenty of jobs you can find and make in art. Its just once people figured out how to draw beautiful realistic pictures the traditional art community as a whole gave up on making the broad basic theory advances you see in science and tech. Thats why you get BS like random paint splotches selling for millions of dollars. People just don't know what to do anymore after the old masters. Don't get me wrong in the commercial field art is advancing in certain ways as people find a wa

  • at least they don't have insane loans to pay off!

  • So, cole miners - "Learn tech." ok. (Score:3)

    by Oligonicella ( 659917 ) on Monday October 12, 2020 @04:05PM (#60600470)
    But artists - "Learn tech." not OK. An effete bias at work.

  • The arts are something you can only be good in if you really want to. IT security (nobody competent uses the "cyber" bullshit...) is something you can only be good in if you really want to. And, to be good, you need a real IT background in addition. Which, again, is something you can only be good in if you really want to. In addition, IT security is a mess today. A mess that requires people really good at it to have any chance to eventually clean it up in the next few decades.

    Any arts person that has not co

  • What is it with stupid politicians? (Score:3)

    by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Monday October 12, 2020 @04:11PM (#60600500)

    Every time there's a job loss in a sector, it's automatically "become a programmer" or whatever. Do they think working in IT is fucking easy or what?

    If anything, they should be saying "Lost your job? Become a politician!" because anyone can become an entitled asshole with an opinion on topics they know nothing at all.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Maybe they do think IT is easy, because there’s quite a few self-taught people in the field, and quite a few are pretty successful. In contrast, you’ll be hard pressed to find self-taught doctors or lawyers. You can learn IT at home, and find work without a diploma or certificates (though it is getting harder). It does however take years of practice and dedication.

      I remember during the dot-com boom there were all manner of programmes aimed at retraining people for IT. Dropouts, out-of-work li
    • And unlike IT, (almost) anyone can run for office. The qualifications are much lower. Unlike the arts or IT, no specialized training, experience or particular talent is necessary.

  • WTF (Score:3)

    by onyxruby ( 118189 ) <onyxruby@ c o m c a s t . net> on Monday October 12, 2020 @04:51PM (#60600636)

    What kind of brain dead idea was this? There is very little crossover between the two. It can be difficult enough for IT people to make the transition and they have a technical background to begin with. How does theater crossover into Infosec? Why encourage people into a career they arenâ(TM)t prepared for?

    This reminds me of those commercials that used to air promising you could start a new technology career in 90 days after getting a certificate through their program. How many people wasted money and time for jobs that wouldnâ(TM)t hire them? People need to stop making promises of careers that just arenâ(TM)t readily available.

    The opportunity cost alone is significant. Hard to do is not the same as hard working. Iâ(TM)m not devaluing any other career - hardest working people I ever saw worked on the steam line in a cardboard factory. Itâ(TM)s much easier to find people willing to work hard than it is to find

    • My "favorite" part is that absurd as the whole thing appears from the summary here, the article is even more bonkers. You and I look at this and say, "Really? You're going to turn artists into security experts?", but the article looks at it from the other direction - that it's an insult to artists to suggest they should do something else, and the real problem is that the government isn't giving them enough free money.

  • Into a furnace, anyone can do it.
    Now being a politician on the other hand takes years of training. People skills. Pretend to care. Networking. One hand washes the other. It’s actual hard work. Not like working in IT.

  • The UK is even more in love with offshoring basic entry-level IT jobs than the US is, When you're in a spot like that, it's no wonder there's a shortage of people willing to go into this line of work.

    I can't imagine what kind of job outside of level 1 helpdesk or "PCI/HIPAA/FedRAMP Audit Checkbox Engineer" an arts graduate could do with the equivalent of coder bootcamp. Maybe that's what they're trying to get...an army of cheap cyber-security audit runners? Because I highly doubt someone with experience cou

    • In Australia, being over 35 will can that idea. Then employers want experienced bodies with no training on their part needed,Then a security clearance to TS will take oh 13 months and the Employer is supposed to pick up the tab. Then the per-seat software licences and SAN's refreshers , big dollars. Like the UK, only a few lucky graduates win the paid for training security gig. The good news is employers would rather have no-one on the job, rather than pay market wages. Thankfully randsomware is doing the r

  • The job said they might work "in cyber".

    Yes, no end to that sentence. Space? Men? Punk? Security? Crime?

    However, my conclusion was from "to cyber", which means the ballet dancer in question was going work in internet porn.

  • "...after the culture secretary described it as "crass."

    Who would the culture secretary be w/o his minions? Does he give a shit that the vast majority of them can't afford to put a roof over their head?

  • how much worse could a few prima ballerinas be?

  • One daughter loved art, switched to web design, made money. Another daughter made money in dance (now COVID-closed), retraining in TEFL. Doing what society will pay for isn't rocket science.
  • There isn't a whole lot of skill overlap between Arts and Cybersecurity.

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