White House unveils cyber workforce initiative
The Biden Administration has introduced a new initiative that would aim to see the US government expand both its training and hiring for tech jobs
The White House is introducing a plan aimed at recruiting and training technology professionals.
The Biden administration said that its National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy would help fill what it believes will he "hundreds of thousands" of positions across various industries both in the public and private sectors.
"Frontier technologies that can address climate change, secure our nation, and advance the health and welfare of communities are creating a demand for early career and historically untapped talent," National Cyber Director Kemba Eneas Walden said in introducing the plan.
"We must align these jobs of tomorrow to our approaches to skilling."
Pitched as a "four pillar plan" the strategy ranges from what officials termed "foundational" education and training efforts to more short-term strategies towards the hiring of workers.
The basis of that, the administration said, will be expanding education in STEM fields through the K-12 level and overhauling curriculum to better match up with emerging fields and skillsets.
At a higher level, it is planned that the administration will ask agencies to look at ways to improve their recruiting and hiring practices as well as ways to better connect potential employers with qualified candidates.
Among the planned efforts will be a workforce retraining program that would allow workers to learn cyber skills at little to no cost, as well as programs to help small businesses find and hire skilled workers for those positions.
The plan would call for both government and community groups to be involved in the training and literacy programs.
The White House said the plan will be aimed at teaching skills across the population but will also focus on diversity and inclusion efforts with the long-term aim of underrepresented groups helping to fill out the newly-created positions.
"Filling the hundreds of thousands of cyber job vacancies across our nation is a national security imperative and the administration is making generational investments to prepare our country to lead in the digital economy," the White House said.
"The NCWES is positioned to empower every American seeking to participate in our digital ecosystem and underscores the critical need to fill a vast number of vacant cyber jobs."
