The Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corporation along with Anne Arundel Community College received a three-year federal grant, last summer, to develop the Pathways to Cybersecurity Career Consortium program. The program’s goal is to provide 1,000 job seekers with the training they need to work in cybersecurity – safeguarding computer systems from hackers and other threats. For example, residents can earn industry certifications in areas including microcomputer operations, networking and digital forensics.
220 people are enrolled in the program. The participants receive career counseling and job training as well as job placement assistance. To be eligible for the program, participants must either be unemployed or working part-time and seeking a full-time job, or employed in the technology field and looking to upgrade skills. The grant covers the cost of the training, plus class materials.
Recently, U.S. Rep. C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger, D-Baltimore County, and Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation Secretary Alexander Sanchez toured the facilities of the program.
“Almost every major company has to have cybersecurity,” Ruppersberger, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told Butler and the few dozen others at the orientation. “If you learn well here, there will be jobs.”
Full newspaper story can be found at: http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/TOP/2011/03/28-03/Job-seekers-get-cybersecurity-training.html