Five nonprofits have been awarded National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) grants totaling nearly $1 million for projects supporting cybersecurity education, training and workforce development.
The grants have been distributed between five regions for projects that take a community approach to filling the increasing number of cybersecurity positions. The Regional Alliances and Multistakeholder Partnerships to Stimulate Cybersecurity and Workforce Development projects will run for 15 months and will support students and marketplace stimulation, aligning them with the National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework’s sets of tasks, knowledge, skills and abilities that define cybersecurity work.
“The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education grants support job-driven training programs designed to fill the many cybersecurity job openings in both the public and private sectors,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said in a news release. “As part of Commerce’s ‘Skills for Business’ initiative, these grants strengthen regional workforce partnerships that engage employers to close the gap between talent supply and demand in this critically important high-growth field.”
The funded consortia leaders tasked with developing the assets NIST has identified as needed to support the digital economy include the following: Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education (Central Region); Old Dominion University (Mid-Atlantic Region); State University of New York at Albany (Northeast Region); Chicanos Por La Causa (Southwest Region); and Pikes Peak Community College (Western Region).
These groups will bring together commercial sectors, the defense industry, public schools, universities and community colleges, research labs, small businesses, private employers, vocational programs, manufacturers, and others to enrich the infrastructure needed to grow a pipeline of advanced technology job applicants to address complex workforce demands.
Awardees will detail their projects at the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education 2016 Conference and Expo, held Nov. 1-2, in Kansas City, Missouri.
