Macquarie Government partners with Fortem Australia, looking to attract first responders onto the cyber security ‘frontline’

Macquarie Government, part of Macquarie Telecom Group (ASX: MAQ), today announced it has signed an agreement with Fortem Australia to become an Employment Partner, committing the company to recruitment and career transfer opportunities for first responders throughout Australia.

Founded in 2019, Fortem Australia supports the mental health and wellbeing of Australian first responders and their families. The non-for-profit organisation was co-founded by John Bale, also co-founder of Soldier On, a similar organisation which supports career transition opportunities for Australia’s veterans.

The partnership will see Macquarie work closely with Fortem to reskill and recruit first responders into new careers, transitioning them into cyber-security, cloud, and data centre security roles to support Macquarie’s federal government customers, with a specific focus on national security and defence ICT. 

The company will also develop and implement its own First Responder Recruitment Strategy, in partnership with Fortem, to identify opportunities for first responders within Macquarie Government.

Through the partnership, Macquarie will work directly with Fortem to support training opportunities, resources, networking events and other initiatives to enable first responders looking to switch careers and join the cyber and data security sector. 

The agreement comes following the Federal Government underscoring in the Budget the need for partnership with industry to tackle skills shortages in key industries. Cyber security is in need of a minimum of 17,000 new workers by 2026 according to AustCyber.

Macquarie Government Managing Director Aidan Tudehope says the partnership with Fortem will help to grow Australia’s sovereign cyber and defence talent to meet the Government’s cyber security agenda.

“Australia needs to considerably increase its cyber posture right across the economy. To deliver this uplift we need, as a nation, to exponentially grow the available talent pool,” said Tudehope. “The nature of cyber-security means we need to develop and nurture that talent through a sovereign lens – ensuring we have Australians learning and working to protect Australian data.”   

“Australia’s first responders are among the best in the world. Many of them possess the analytical, investigative, problem-solving, and pattern-recognition skills necessary for success in cyber, defence technology and related industries. In many cases, they already have the essential security clearances needed to work with sensitive data.

“We’re committed to continuing our goal of uplifting Australian sovereign capability in cyber security and ICT, and this important partnership with Fortem will help us in that effort.”

Fortem Australia Managing Director and Co-Founder John Bale said the partnership with Macquarie Telecom Group will help more first responder families make a smooth, supported transition into the next chapter of their careers.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Macquarie to the Fortem family,” said Bale. 

“Partnering with the right companies to enable career transition for first responders and their families is central to our mission to provide specialised wellbeing and mental fitness support to first responder families.

“Macquarie has long championed Australian jobs and skills development and is a leading company in an industry where there is close values alignment with and strong mutual benefits for first responders.”

The partnership follows Macquarie Telecom Group recently joining VMware’s Sovereign Cloud initiative, a further reflection of the company’s commitment to sovereign IT capability.