Jay Clemens
Executives from government contracting companies have discussed during a conference how to address the scarcity of cyber talent and where future cyber skills will come from, GCN reported Friday.
Bob Fecteau, chief information officer of Science Applications International Corp., told audiences at the Commonwealth Conference on Cyber and Education that government agencies and private companies must begin to consider college students with cybersecurity certification, Derek Major reports.
Fecteau said he believes certification could kick-start efforts to build up cyber talent, according to the report.
“I think we have to create a really strategic pathway that starts off with a certificate, [then] we start working in the network security operations center watching logs,” he told the conference.
Barry Barlow, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Vencore, also told the conference he believes community colleges will be the major source of the cyber workforce in the future, GCN reports.
“At least from a staffing standpoint, we’re going to see a shift and as much as 40 percent of the cyber workforce will be graduates of community colleges with certificates,” Barlow said.
