Norwich University was awarded a grant totaling $714,285 from the National Security Agency, in collaboration with the United States Army Reserve (USAR). This grant is to support scholarships for soldiers, capacity building to enhance the overall educational experience and outcomes, and to further enhance local and regional community outreach and development.
The Vermont-based school is one of six universities that have partnered with the United States Army Reserve public/private effort dubbed the Cyber Private Public Partnership Initiative (P3i). The goal of this program is to foster the intellectual development of the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
“This program will use the scholarship dollars to improve the training in cyber warfare in the Army Reserve, which is an element of the U.S. Army’s Cyber Mission Force,” said Philip T. Susmann, president of Norwich University Applied Research Institutes. “Norwich has been working since 2001 to build its cybersecurity program, both through on campus and distance learning.”
In 2002 Norwich became a member of what is today the National Science Foundation’s Cyber Corps: Scholarship for Service program. Training the next generation of cyber warriors is part of the goal of these efforts. By working with the military and the private sector this program could help be a step in the right direction towards addressing the worker shortage in the world of cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity – a Critical Skills Gap
Early this year the Government Accountability Office identified cybersecurity as one of six federal workforce occupations facing mission-critical skills gaps, business and industry face similar shortages. There is now a need for 40,000 cybersecurity professionals just to satisfy the government’s demand.
“This starts small, but it is a move in the right direction,” said Erin Thede, director of the Army Reserve’s Private Public Partnership program. “What this allows is that the active component soldier who comes out of the military with cybersecurity training can still go to work for someone that will pay the big dollars, like a Google or Microsoft.
“These scholarships will allow those warriors to get their advanced degrees, serve in the Army Reserves and still work for those companies,” added Thede. “This means that the Army Reserve will retain those with the skills, but the individuals can still make money in the private sector.”
In addition the partner companies can provide flexibility to those serving in the reserves, explained Susmann. “The folks can still serve in the Reserves,” he added. “In many cases we’re seeing that they can perform their duties without having to use vacation days to fulfill their obligations thanks to flexibility from their employers.”
The program is also designed to allow those obtaining advanced degrees to be well positioned to then teach the next generation of cyber warriors entering the program. As a result, the military will get skilled soldiers, the private sector will benefit from skilled cybersecurity experts and academia will get those to further train the next crop.
“This has to benefit all sides,” said Thede. “We’re not an organization that just looks at what this brings to us, we want this to be something that furthers all those involved.”
