Cyber Pro: Professional Development Pathways for Students and Faculty in Cybersecurity

In this project, community college students are gaining important experience and business skills and faculty are gaining technical knowledge and skills through a blended approach to internships and externships, combining virtual and hands-on learning experiences.

The project is also focusing on attracting more students, especially female and minority students, to studies and careers in cybersecurity. A new articulation process between the community college and a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) allows university computer science students to take courses at the community college to gain cybersecurity skills and allows community college students to transfer to complete a bachelor's degree. A partnership with a K-12 school system that has a large minority population allows high school students to enroll in community college courses in cybersecurity. The resulting career pathway engages students from diverse backgrounds to enter employment in the cybersecurity field. The project is also developing a cohort approach to assist post-9/11 veterans and dislocated workers in pursuing rapid credentialing to enter cybersecurity careers.

Although cybersecurity technicians need technical skills, they also need to be able to serve as the human interface between the computing system and its business users, including managers and executives who must implement cybersecurity policies. The project is addressing this need by creating new curricula that give students appropriate business skills. Cybersecurity curricula are also being revised and expanded to incorporate the emerging security needs of both standard PC-based systems and high performance computing (HPC) clusters.