On November 10th-12th, 2023 the 8th South-East Europe Design Automation, Computer Engineering, Computer Networks and Social Media Conference (SEEDA-CECNSM 2023) took place in Piraeus, Greece. Researchers from Universities in different countries of Europe, such as Greece, Italy, Norway, and UK, as well as engineering industry experts provided an insight into the unique world stemming from the interaction between the fields of computer engineering, networks and design automation (DA), exchanged ideas, innovations, and presented results of on-going research in the most state-of-the-art areas. Among others, a special session was dedicated to the Technologies Essentials in Education.

The goals of the subject matter, the curriculum, and the methods of instruction are now crucial concerns for the future of computing education. In addition to covering current and upcoming trends in information technologies in education, the special session on Technologies Essentials in Education provided educators, researchers, and practitioners interested in educational aspects of all computing disciplines with a forum to present and discuss their research findings.

Technical University of Crete (TUC) presented the Cybersecurity Skills Alliance – New Vision for Europe – REWIRE project under this special session’s major topic “Cybersecurity Education”, which develops a Blueprint for the Cybersecurity industry and a concrete European Cybersecurity Skills Strategy. REWIRE is supported by the EU Erasmus+ Programme and already runs its 3^rd year out of 4 with 25 partners from academia and VET, cybersecurity industry, non-cyber industries, certification partners and umbrella organizations.

The presentation started with the explanation of the European Cybersecurity Blueprint, which constitutes the “glue” of the whole project and consists of the following four elements:

1. Skills Framework (ENISA ECSF, ESCO, and output from the pilot projects)
2. Study of attractiveness of the cybersecurity sector in the job market
3. Analysis of cybersecurity skills identification tools
4. Analysis of cybersecurity skills development tools

The above-mentioned elements were analysed one by one and also presented on the official website of the project, as well as the tools and courses that are built to support the role of the project. The audience seemed very interested in the outputs of the project and after the end of the presentation a small discussion took place guided by their questions.

Overall, it was a very interesting event where people with similar interests met and discussed issues related to cyber security. Initiatives like REWIRE are here to support such actions as well as bring people from universities and cybersecurity industry closer together.