One of the United Kingdom's biggest defence firms has teamed up with the University of Gloucestershire to deliver "cutting-edge cyber-security workshops".

The multi-billion dollar turnover US firm, whose UK operation racked up £554 million of sales last year, will roll out the classes for 40 British students tomorrow (May 23).

It will be the third workshop run at the university by Raytheon, which has a base at Barnwood, and is for the students that have progressed from the earlier beginners' course.

The syllabus, said to "provide participants with the latest in cyber security skills", was designed in collaboration with experts from the world-leading Centre for Infrastructure Assurance and Security at the University of Texas, San Antonio.

James Gray, managing director, cyber and intelligence, Raytheon UK, said: "By 2021, there will be an estimated shortage of three million information security workers worldwide.

"We are committed to collaborating with universities across the UK to support the development of advanced cyber skills."

Specialists have travelled to Gloucestershire from the US to help deliver the course which aims to give students "real-world experience in cyber security techniques and methods to identify and address network vulnerabilities".

Paula Thomas, principal lecturer in cyber security, technical and applied computing at the University of Gloucestershire, said: "This is an effort to address the skills gap within the cybersecurity industry in the UK.

"These workshops are designed to provide our students with a perspective on how the different cybersecurity tools and techniques that they learn on the course are used in the real-world to detect cybersecurity threats."

Cyber specialists and analysts working at Raytheon in the UK will meet with the students at the end of the workshop to share their experiences working in the cyber sector and developing the latest software.

Raytheon employs 1,700 people UK-wide and supports 8,000 jobs.

The course will take place at the university's Park Campus.