Creating a Collaborative and Student Internships to Enhance Education and Career Pathways in Cybersecurity

Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane WA

Investigators

Abstract

Business, industry, and government must maintain security of their computers and information systems. To do so, technicians must be well prepared to prevent, detect, and investigate cybersecurity breaches. Because of the growing number and scale of cyber-threats, there is also a growing need for many more technicians who have the necessary cybersecurity knowledge and skills. In Spokane County, Washington, demand for cybersecurity workers is projected to grow four times faster than the countywide average for all occupations over the next seven years. This project will help educate today's college students to meet this demand. The project will create a "Cybersecurity Collaborative" that engages regional information technology employers and leaders from area high schools. With the help of this collaborative, Spokane Falls Community College will align coursework in its relevant programs with the cybersecurity skills needed by employers and will establish a sustainable internship program for students pursuing a cybersecurity career. The project will draw on best practices from previous community college STEM internship programs to design a sustainable cybersecurity internship program that engages approximately 15 students each year. These students will be chosen from those enrolled in the college's Associate of Applied Science degree program in Information Technology. An innovative aspect of the project is that it will recruit several students from the college's Bachelor of Applied Science program in Applied Management to assist with the design and management of the internship program. Through this work, the Applied Management students will gain familiarity with cybersecurity concepts and work roles that could be part of their management responsibilities in future employment. Major activities in the project include creating, managing, and leveraging the new Cybersecurity Collaborative with regional employers and high school leaders; designing and implementing the new cybersecurity internship program; and evaluating longer-term opportunities to enhance the college's responsiveness to the region's cybersecurity workforce needs. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) 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.