Maryland Cyber Skills Alliance to launch training program in March

A new workforce training program to prepare Marylanders for cybersecurity jobs received $200,000 from the state’s labor department and plans to launch its first cohort next month.

The Maryland Cyber Skills Alliance plans to launch a program for 20 people on March 4 that provides certifications to current workers in the field and training to people from underserved populations looking to break into it. Application info is available here.

The program is being led by Transmosis, a cybersecurity workforce development organization founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and tech training and trade organization CompTIA. The two-month program will be led by CompTIA instructors, and Transmosis will then provide help in finding career opportunities.

Transmosis said Wednesday that it received a grant through the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation’s EARN Maryland program. The grant will allow it to provide scholarships of $10,000 to the program members.

Partners on the program also include Baltimore-based Point3 Security, Greenbelt-based Cybrary, TrainACE, the Federal Business Council and the Cybersecurity Association of Maryland.

The goal of the program is to provide a path to cybersecurity jobs in the state that arise from government institutions like the NSA and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, as well as private contracting firms and startups. The Alliance pointed to data from Cyberseek that pointed to 15,128 job openings in cyber between September 2017 and August 2018. That’s up from 14,353 the prior year.

“Despite our already high share of STEM professionals, Maryland is continually working to ensure a pipeline of talent that can meet our existing and future hiring needs within the technology sectors,” Maryland Acting Labor Secretary James E. Rzepkowski said in a statement. “Industry-led partnerships like that with Transmosis and CompTIA will help us achieve that by putting Maryland residents on a pathway to high-paying, successful careers in cybersecurity.”

EARN Maryland, which has been championed by Gov. Larry Hogan, is a workforce training initiative in which the state provides funding to help businesses provide paths to jobs. Cyber is one of a number of areas where the program focuses.