Chunk of $450 million aimed at job training goes to cyber
Twenty-five of the 71 grant recipients announced Sept. 29 will focus their programs on cybersecurity and IT.
A significant portion of the $450 million in federal job training grants announced Sept. 29 for community colleges and other educational institutions around the country will be spent on IT and cybersecurity career fields. Twenty-five of the 71 grant recipients will focus their programs on cybersecurity and IT, the White House said in announcing the funding.
The programs "will help alleviate the projected national shortage of IT workers," the White House said; by 2020, there will be 1.4 million more IT jobs but only 400,000 more computer science graduates, the announcement said, citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are among the large technology and defense firms working with community colleges to develop training. For example, $15 million will go to fourteen community colleges in Maryland, which will work with those firms and others to develop programs for low-income workers with little prior experience in IT or cybersecurity, the White House said. The program, known as the Maryland Cyber-Technology Job Pathways Consortium, will have students earn a two-year degree based on National Security Agency guidelines for security and information assurance programs.
The consortium aims to graduate about 2,000 students in the next three years.
The $450 million allotment is part of a grant program called the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training initiative, which is carried out by the departments of Labor and Education. Read a full list of grant recipients here.