The White House Office of the National Cyber Director launched a program Wednesday to help fill the gap of about 500,000 available cybersecurity jobs across the country.
Service for America, a program developed alongside the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management, is a recruitment and hiring push that will help connect Americans with available jobs in cybersecurity, technology and artificial intelligence.
The program’s major emphasis is to reach job candidates without traditional qualifications, such as computer science or engineering backgrounds.
“Many Americans do not realize that a cyber career is available to them,” National Cyber Director Harry Coker Jr. said in a blog post released Wednesday. “There is a perception that you need a computer science degree and a deeply technical background to get a job in cyber.”
In reality, Coker said people of all backgrounds can find well-paying jobs in cybersecurity, and the White House has been promoting efforts to connect a new generation of prospective candidates into those positions.”
The cybersecurity industry has dealt with significant issues around burnout and job stress due to private sector job cuts, alert fatigue among security operations staff and regulatory and legal requirements on CISOs and other risk executives at the C-suite level.
The White House unveiled a national cyber workforce and education strategy in July 2023 as part of a major effort to close the skills gap. The push for additional hiring is part of the national cybersecurity strategy, which is designed to build up the nation’s resilience to prevent and better withstand malicious cyberattacks.
Just last month, Coker visited the College of Southern Nevada to promote efforts to train more students in cybersecurity.
The White House posted links to job recruitment fairs and related programs taking place through mid-October. Additional information about federal internships, apprenticeship programs and other information about federal jobs is also available.