A Community College and Industry Partnership to Produce a Highly Qualified Cybersecurity Workforce

Arapahoe Community College, Littleton CO

Investigators

Abstract

Keeping computers and information systems secure is a major challenge. Business, industry, and government need well-prepared technicians who can prevent, detect, and investigate cybersecurity breaches. The growth of cyber-threats has created a need for many more workers who have appropriate, specific knowledge and skills. Nationwide, employer surveys indicate that only a small percentage of universities and colleges fully prepare graduates for cybersecurity jobs. Colorado is a major hub for cybersecurity jobs, with over 9,000 open cybersecurity positions in the Denver Metro and Colorado Springs areas, which are served by the college. Over 1,200 of these jobs can be filled by individuals who have an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree. This project will prepare well-qualified cybersecurity professionals and information security analysts to benefit the regional workforce. The project will create and implement a responsive AAS cybersecurity program aligned with business needs and Federal standards. The approach will focus on integrating experiential and project-based learning to provide students with real-world experiences, to create seamless continuity from classroom to workforce, and to equip students with 21st-century employability skills. The college intends to achieve a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense designation. This designation, along with mapping the curriculum to the Federal standards, will equip students with the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to protect and defend the nation's infrastructure. The project will also focus on increasing the participation of women in cybersecurity. The project has three goals: (1) to address the unmet demand for cybersecurity technicians in the region served by the college; (2) to enhance gender diversity in cybersecurity by recruiting more female students into the program (the aim is for at least 20% of the students to be women); and (3) to improve retention and persistence in the attainment of an AAS degree in cybersecurity. The project will adopt, adapt, and evaluate materials and methods developed through the Colorado Community College System, the National CyberWatch Center, and other NSF Advanced Technological Education projects. It will also develop a new course in Security Risk Management. Collaboration with a regional Business and Industry Leadership Team will ensure that the project can create a robust curriculum that provides seamless continuity from the classroom to the workplace and meets industry standards. In addition, collaboration with a subject matter expert on diversity and organizational change, along with partnerships with high schools, will facilitate the recruitment, retention, and completion of women in the college's cybersecurity program. By using distance education and remote-access labs, the project will reach beyond Colorado. The new courses that are developed will be added to the CCCS database and will be available for all 13 colleges in the system and other colleges across the nation. The best practices that are discovered will be disseminated nationally through the National CyberWatch Center, ATE Central, the Community College Cyber Summit, and the National Convergence Technology Center, as well as through national conferences that focus on cybersecurity and experiential education. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program, which focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.