Written by John Heckenlible Glendale Community College
Glendale Community College's Gaucho Security Operations Center has been invited to participate in a special event, “White House Conference on High-Wage Jobs in Cyber,” to be held on April 29th to promote high-wage cyber jobs in all sectors of the economy. focused on continued efforts to expand access. .
The Office of the Director of National Cyber has developed the National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy to address this national security and economic imperative.
NCWES responds to President Joe Biden's call in ONCD's 2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy to develop strategies to expand the national cyber workforce, increase its diversity, and expand access to cyber education and training. The implementation of NCWES aims to expand opportunities for well-paid middle-class jobs in the cyber field across the country.
For educators, NCWES supports mentoring skilled cyber workers and teaching basic cyber skills to all Americans. This supports the development of skills-based education models to replace four-year degrees and those that encourage the alignment of digital skills to constantly evolving industry needs.
This event brings together representatives from the federal government, private sector, local and community-based workforce development organizations (approximately 165 attendees), and aims to provide all Americans with access to opportunities presented by the Investing in America Agenda. We have highlighted new actions to provide the following: A new approach to hiring and training cyberworkers.
In addition, Rachel Hall, Cybersecurity Program Director at Glendale Community College, was invited to participate as a panelist and share the work GCC is doing to bridge the gap between academia and the workforce. She was one of her five panelists for this part of the conference and shared what her GCC is doing to prepare students for careers in the cybersecurity field.
GSOC is the first operations center of its kind in Arizona as well as the Maricopa Community College District, employing a collaboration hub model that gives back to the community by providing cybersecurity as a service.
Local governments in need of cybersecurity services can partner with GSOC to receive monitoring services from student interns, all free of charge. This program and student learning environment is located in a newly renovated section of the Business and IT building.
Glendale Community College GSOC is meeting Arizona's growing need for cybersecurity professionals.
Interns will receive advanced skill development as security operations center analysts and engineers while assisting clients in monitoring for security breaches in their networks and other operations. The program provides a competency-based platform and creates a career-ready pipeline for students while contributing to the community.
“A STEM grant to West Valley Information Technology and Advancing Technologies provided the funding needed to launch this program. GSOC provides students with much-needed workplace-ready experience. Students are in an endless loop. You need experience to get a position, but you can't get experience if you don't secure a position. This program puts students in a real security operations center. We will provide you with experience and workplace-ready knowledge and skills as you enter the cybersecurity industry or transition into our four-year program,” Rachel Hall said in a press release.
Glendale Community College's Cybersecurity Program is a National Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD). The goal of the CAE program is to reduce the vulnerability of information systems infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense and producing professionals with cyber defense expertise.
This program is managed by the NSA's National Cryptography School. Federal partners include the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Institute of Standards and Technology/National Initiative on Cybersecurity Education, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense Office of the Chief Information Officer, and U.S. Cyber Command . .
GCC is also the only partner institution in Arizona to be part of the U.S. Cyber Command Academic Activity Network. As of July 1, 2022, there are a total of 84 educational institutions, of which only 14 are community colleges.
