Building an Educational Cyber Pipeline
Published Jun 27, 2008
While the Cyber Innovation Center is working to grow the area’s cyber-presence around the globe, one component of its operation is concerned with something at a much more local level: developing the future cyber workforce.
The center has created its Academic Outreach program, which is tapping into the area’s educational institutions to ensure that from the earliest grades, students are getting well trained in technology.
“One of the goals of the CIC is to create a knowledge-based workforce in the region to support the requirements of the Air Force, the private industry and academia,” says G.B. Cazes, assistant director.
“A lot of those people in science and technology jobs in the U.S. are foreign nationals, and they can’t do the classified research to support the Air Force. The pipeline’s getting smaller, and kids aren’t interested in science and math here, while those subjects are getting bigger in other countries.”
Academic Outreach uses presentations on cyberspace and technology to spark interest among students of all ages.
“We’re doing what we call Cyber Days, a workshop to expose kids to cyberspace, the whole spectrum,” Cazes says. “We’re piloting a cyber camp this summer for ninth-grade students where we’ll have a week to immerse them in cyber-technologies and social issues. We’re hoping to build that up through the 11th grade and down into the middle-school range.”
The hope is that by engaging them early, children will continue to expand their own knowledge about technology as they progress in their education, so when they finish they’ll have the skills that employers require.
“We’re working with our member companies on mentoring programs, so that the students will have real-life applications,” Cazes says. “We’re planning a full-on attack. You can’t just focus on the higher levels, because if you do, you’re not getting to the kids you need.
The programs we’re planning will bring all the schools up, which is good for everybody.”
Story by Joe Morris
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