How to Upskill and Fill Cybersecurity Skill Gaps on Your Team With Custom Learning Paths

Upskilling has become essential for filling the cybersecurity skills gaps that many organizations face today. With threats evolving fast and specialized talent in short supply, upskilling your current team is the most effective way to bridge those gaps. By investing in your team’s development, you’re not only addressing immediate weaknesses but also building a more robust, adaptable workforce capable of handling future challenges.

Every cybersecurity team is unique. Some professionals excel in certain areas, while others need focused training to fill specific gaps. Some organizations face heightened risks of attack, while others manage intricate networks where even a moment of vulnerability could lead to severe consequences. Tailoring programs to address these unique challenges ensures that your team’s learning is relevant and actionable.

Off-the-shelf training often fails to meet the specific needs of your team, leaving critical gaps unaddressed. By offering personalized training, you can ensure that each team member is developing the exact skills they need to fill those gaps, whether it’s enhancing their threat hunting capabilities, strengthening incident response skills, or mastering complex network defenses.

This personalized approach sharpens their expertise where it’s most needed, giving your team the confidence and skills to tackle challenges head-on. By focusing on real-world applications and specialized knowledge, you’re preparing your team to thrive in high-pressure, mission-critical situations. The result is a skilled, agile workforce that’s ready to protect your organization’s most valuable assets and stay ahead of emerging threats.

Tailoring the cybersecurity journey for your team is crucial for several reasons:

• Relevant skill development: Every team operates with different tools, technologies, and systems, so one-size-fits-all training often leaves gaps. Customized training ensures that your team is developing the exact skills they need to handle the unique challenges they face.
• Maximized learning efficiency: When training directly relates to your team’s environment and responsibilities, the learning curve shortens, and retention improves. This minimizes wasted time on irrelevant content and speeds up mastery of critical skills.
• Increased engagement: Training that feels applicable to daily tasks keeps participants more engaged and motivated. When team members see the direct impact of their learning on their work, it strengthens their commitment to ongoing development.
• Enhanced problem-solving: Tailored training prepares your team to handle the specific kinds of threats and incidents they’re most likely to encounter. This leads to better preparedness in real-world scenarios, where quick, decisive problem-solving is essential.
• Adaptability to new threats: Cyber threats evolve, but so do the needs of your business and the skill gaps in your team. Tailored training allows you to pivot and adapt, ensuring your team is ready to respond to the latest challenges in your industry or sector.
• Team-specific growth: Tailoring the cybersecurity journey helps develop a sense of ownership and growth within your team. You’re not just building skills—you’re cultivating a culture of continuous improvement that aligns with your team’s long-term goals.

Let’s see how easy it is to tailor cybersecurity training with OffSec’s Custom Learning Paths feature in the Admin Portal. This feature empowers enterprise administrators to tailor the learning journey specifically for their learners.

Administrators can create custom paths by selecting any combination of courses, learning paths, modules, and labs. This level of customization ensures that learning is aligned with the unique demands and goals of each enterprise, enhancing the relevance and impact of training.

You can choose between 9 courses:

• PEN-200: Penetration Testing with Kali Linux
• PEN-300: Advanced Evasion Techniques and Breaching Defenses
• SOC-200: Foundational Security Operations and Defensive Analysis
• TH-200: Foundational Threat Hunting
• WEB-200: Foundational Web Application Assessments with Kali Linux
• WEB-300: Advanced Web Attacks and Exploitation
• EXP-301: Windows User Mode Exploit Development
• EXP-312: Advanced macOS Control Bypasses

As well as 25 Learning Paths across 10 job roles:

• Cloud Engineer & DevSecOps
• Digital Forensics Analysts
• IT Generalist
• Incident Responder
• Malware Analysts
• Network Penetration Tester
• SOC Analyst
• Security Researcher
• Software Developer
• System Administrator
• Threat Hunter
• Vulnerability Analyst and Manager
• Web Application Tester

That’s over 530 Learning Modules and more than 500 Labs you can combine to create and customize Learning Paths that suit your team’s needs. We add new materials, labs, and experiences regularly, keeping learners on their toes and providing a lifelong learning experience.

As the first step of the creation of a Custom Learning Path, you can choose the name and description. Next, you can choose from a provided list of job roles, or create a custom job role for the Path. 

The next step is to choose the Learning Modules, Learning Paths, Courses, and Labs that will be part of your new Learning Path. You can reorder the items before publishing the changes.

Upon creating the Path, you will be asked who want to assign it to.

Once your learners are immersed in their training and going through their assigned Learning Paths, you as admin are able to click on a Custom Path and see all learners who were assigned that Path, as well as the total progress made on that Path. 

Here is the step-by-step process: 

Tailoring cybersecurity training to the unique needs of your team is more than just a smart approach—it’s a necessary one. By creating custom learning paths that focus on the skills, roles, and real-world challenges your team faces, you ensure they’re always prepared for whatever comes next. With the flexibility to mix and match courses, modules, and labs, OffSec’s Custom Learning Paths offer a powerful tool to build a more agile, skilled, and resilient cybersecurity workforce. In an industry where the stakes are high and the threats constantly shifting, providing your team with relevant, actionable training is key to keeping your organization secure and ahead of the curve.