The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) awarded five organizations a series of grants totaling $1 million for community approaches to addressing a national shortage of cybersecurity employees, the agency said Sept. 20.
The grants program will be overseen through the NIST-led National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), a partnership formed by government, academia, and the private sector. NICE’s mission is to support cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development. It is set to run for 15 months and awards nearly $200,000 to each program.
NIST explained the issue of cybersecurity staffing shortages using a 2015 analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data by Stanford University’s Peninsula Press. The analysis found that there are over $209,000 open cybersecurity positions in the U.S., while the number of job postings has also increased 74 percent in the previous five years.
The new NIST grants are being funded to establish partnerships to increase the pipeline of students pursuing cybersecurity careers, help possible cyber employees obtain the skills they need, and support local economic development to stimulate job growth.
The specific program for these grants is the Regional Alliances and Multistakeholder Partnerships to Stimulate Cybersecurity and Workforce Development (RAMPS).
“The partnerships will align the workforce needs of local business and nonprofit organizations with the learning objectives of the NICE Workforce Framework,” NIST said.
“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,. 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,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said in a statement.
“NICE supports local community efforts to leverage regional assets in cybersecurity education, training and workforce development. The RAMPS projects can serve as models for other regions,” NICE Director Rodney Petersen added.
The five grants are as follows:
- The Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education (SOCHE) in Dayton, Ohio to lead the new Cincinnati-Dayton Corridor RAMPS project. Members include the Air Force Institute of Technology, Dayton Development Coalition, University of Cincinnati, University of Dayton and Wright State University who will all work with Cincinnati’s commercial sector and Defense Department industry to address cybersecurity workforce demands.
- The Old Dominion University’s Center for Cybersecurity Education and Research in Norfolk, Va., will coordinate with the Hampton Roads Cybersecurity Education, Workforce, and Economic Development Alliance. This program includes two community colleges, two large public school districts, two universities, a local large private employer, a major federal research lab, and small businesses.
- The State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany in New York will work with the Partnership to Advance Cybersecurity Education and Training to support science, education, and workforce capacity in the community. The project seeks to build clear educational paths and increase regional workforce capacity in cybersecurity for the New York Capital Region.
- Chicanos Por La Causa and Cyber Security Canyon comprise the Arizona Statewide Cyber Workforce Consortium, in Phoenix, Ariz. They plan to develop a unified approach to creating cybersecurity resources from existing efforts developed in the previous five years. The RAMPS program looks to connect applicants from traditional and nontraditional training backgrounds to provide workers for cybersecurity positions in manufacturing, health care, and the defense industrial base in the region.
- Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Colo., will receive funding for the next phase of its Cyber Prep Program to establish a formal, sustainable partnership formed by secondary school districts, employers, and the college. The program plans to build cybersecurity workforce development pathways to address local workforce needs, supporting the development of cybersecurity programs in area high schools and in the college’s Area Vocational Program.
All awardees are set to provide details of their projects at the NICE 2016 Conference and Expo on Nov. 1-2 in Kansas City, Mo.