Expert panel – Validating Spain’s Skills Forecasting Model

On 19 September 2025, the CyberHubs project hosted an expert panel to discuss the growing cybersecurity talent gap in Spain. According to the project’s forecasts, demand for cybersecurity professionals is expected to grow by an additional 9.1% by 2026, which will further widen the gap.

The panel brought together experts from private, public and academic sector who shared insights on the main drivers behind this trend. They highlighted the shortage of specialised profiles, the fast-growing demand across sectors, and the pressing need to strengthen training and upskilling initiatives. The discussion underlined the importance of collaborative efforts between industry, academia, and public institutions to anticipate future needs and ensure a robust cybersecurity workforce in Spain.

All the experts validated the forecasted growth of the cybersecurity talent gap, confirming that demand for professionals will continue to rise (around 9.1% by 2026 in Spain).

The main drivers of the gap identified were: limited understanding of the cybersecurity landscape due to its complexity, insufficient specialised training, difficulties in attracting and retaining young talent, and the rapid evolution of required digital skills.

Participants highlighted that the educational institutions are not updating the programs according with the continuous improvement and innovation of the cybersecurity environment and threats, they expressed the need to align academic curricula with industry needs, foster reskilling and upskilling programs, and increase visibility of cybersecurity careers.

They also emphasised the importance of the innovation in all the related fields of the cybersecurity in National level (education, technologic, policies, privet and public sector) across strategies and plans on short, medium and long term.

Emerging professional roles were mentioned as an area requiring more attention in future forecasts, particularly in cloud security, AI-related security, and incident response.