Welcome to October of 2020, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The theme this year is Do Your Part. Be Cyber Smart.
Do Your Part. Be Cyber Smart.
Here's a little more information about our cyber career profiles, free resources for raising awareness about cybersecurity careers.
Earlier this year, CYBER.ORG partnered with EdWeek Research Center to conduct a national survey about the state of cybersecurity education. According to more than 900 K-12 teachers, principals, and district leaders, both students and educators have limited knowledge of cybersecurity. Less than half of the respondents reported that their districts or schools offer cybersecurity education, and access is uneven. Small and high-poverty districts or cybersecurity deserts – areas that lack cybersecurity companies or universities that study or offer coursework on the subject – are even less likely to offer cybersecurity education. You can access the full PDF of the report here.
Hopefully we all can agree that cybersecurity education is necessary for the stability and security of our nation and the world. While access to cybersecurity education is a challenge, it isn’t the only one facing teachers, students, and families. Technical education alone can't fill the growing cybersecurity workforce gap. Career awareness bridges the gap between education and the real-world application of that education and helps aspiring students know what jobs are out there for them.
CYBER.ORG has developed, and continues to develop, career profiles to address this challenge, and they’re yours for free. Most of the profiles pull information directly from the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Cybersecurity Workforce Framework (NICE Framework), published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This is a nationally focused resource that establishes a taxonomy and common lexicon to describe cybersecurity work, and workers, regardless of where, or for whom, the work is performed.
We’ve pared down the information in the framework and researched common jobs that often perform these roles to create a snapshot of a career in cybersecurity. This includes common education requirements, an estimated salary, necessary soft skills, and even some job duties.
To access these resources, choose “Cyber Career Profiles” from the Career Exploration drop-down menu.
Notice the profiles can be filtered by education requirements. Know these aren’t hard and fast rules but common requirements for those types of jobs. There are always exceptions. We’ve done our best to illustrate the roles as well as provide a diverse cast of characters so students can find themselves represented. Next, find one you like and click away!
You’ll notice the information on the left, which shows education requirements, an estimated salary, and a few soft skills. While the right side lists the common job duties this role will be responsible for. Then we have two options of downloadables, square cards and classroom posters.
We have a square, card version with all of the information on them perfect for sending home with students or having a few printed copies lying around to use.
Our newest addition is a poster version of the profile. We designed them to be printed at 8.5”x14” so teachers can print them from most school printers.
Hopefully your classroom can find a use for these resources, and we can all band together to get more students interested in cybersecurity careers. We want “cybersecurity engineer” to be next to astronaut, doctor, lawyer, and teacher when kids are asked what they want to be when they grow up.
We’ll continue to develop new profiles and some more content based around the existing ones.
Stay tuned and stay safe!