A Roadmap for Successful Regional Alliances and Multistakeholder Partnerships to Build the Cybersecurity Workforce

The cybersecurity workforce shortfall is well documented. According to CyberSeek.org, there were 313,735 open cybersecurity-related positions from September 2017 through August 2018. The 2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study states that 1.8 million more cybersecurity professionals will be needed to accommodate the predicted global shortfall by 2022. The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) is addressing this critical issue by energizing and promoting a robust network and ecosystem of cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development. Supporting this mission, objective 3.3 of the NICE Strategic Plan emphasizes guiding career development and workforce planning by facilitating state and regional consortia to identify cybersecurity pathways addressing local workforce needs.

By fostering regional alliances:

• workforce needs of local business and non-profit organizations are better aligned with the learning objectives of education and training providers conforming to the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework,
• the pipeline of students pursuing cybersecurity careers is enlarged,
• more Americans are upskilled and moved into middle-class jobs in cybersecurity, and
• local economic development to stimulate job growth is supported.