With tens of thousands of unfilled jobs in cybersecurity, the need for a skilled workforce is abundantly clear.
Legislation scheduled for a hearing Tuesday before the Assembly Higher Education Committee seeks to address that need by creating a baccalaureate degree in cybersecurity at California’s community colleges.
“It has become apparent both private and government sectors are having difficulty finding and retaining qualified cybersecurity workers,” Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, said in statement to Techwire.
Irwin, who chairs the Assembly Select Committee on Cybersecurity, is an outspoken advocate of cybersecurity readiness in California, most notably in state government because it stores the personal data of millions of Californians and operates critical infrastructure.
AB 405 would create a pilot program for a cybersecurity degree at not more than 10 community college districts — selected by the chancellor of the California Community Colleges and approved by its board of governors. Students could earn a Bachelor of Applied Science degree focusing on cybersecurity.
The bill builds upon 2014 legislation (SB 850) signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown that created a pilot program for bachelor’s degrees at community colleges to address “unmet workforce needs,” with four-year degrees in dental hygiene, mortuary science and equine industry. Irwin’s bill would add cybersecurity to the list, arguing that there are 45,000 open positions in cybersecurity, and the demand is expected to rise as cyberthreats continue to plague both the private and public sectors.
Industry experts, for example, forecast there will be an estimated 1 million open positions nationwide by 2020, ranging from technicians to auditors and system architects. Those are jobs that require specific technical and vocational skills not currently offered by traditional computer science degree programs at four-year colleges, according to Irwin’s office.
Irwin, who also leads a taskforce on cybersecurity at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said her bill is an attempt to “ensure California continues to be the leader in technology innovation, and extend that innovation to the classroom.”
“While standards, policies and best practices are important conversations to continue to have, without workers to turn them into reality, California will continue to struggle in achieving our cybersecurity goals,” she said.
