Arizona’s demand for qualified cybersecurity and information technology (IT) professionals will only grow. To help close the workforce gap, Glendale Community College (GCC) and its nine sister colleges within the Maricopa County Community College District are creating a career pipeline for the next generation of IT and cybersecurity professionals.
As cybersecurity positions stay unfilled across the state, they open the doors for increased risks of cyberattacks, especially for rural municipalities that are often underfunded and need more resources to recruit and hire cybersecurity professionals. To address this challenge and help Arizona rural municipalities protect their networks against cyberattacks, GCC has opened Arizona’s Gaucho Security Operations Center (GSOC) to provide clients with real-time, free cyber services.
“The Gaucho Security Operations Center is a testament to the power of innovation and leveraging partnerships to best support our students and community. The GSOC provides an opportunity for students to ‘earn and learn’ as they prepare for high-wage, high-demand careers in our community,” said Tiffany Hernandez, Ph.D., J.D., president of Glendale Community College. “There are over 12,000 jobs in cybersecurity in Arizona; we want everyone in our community to have access and support to gain the knowledge and skills needed to compete for these positions. The GSOC provides the education and real-world application of skills to accomplish this goal.”
Funded by a $10 million STEM grant by the West Valley Information Technology and Advancing Technologies, rural municipalities can partner with GSOC to receive cybersecurity services from GCC student interns who have successfully completed the required classes and are prepared to serve in this role. So far, the town of Wickenburg is serving as its first client, with a second client coming on board. To take advantage of this free partnership with GSOC, rural Arizona municipalities should contact Rachelle Hall, department chair for business, IT and cyber at GCC, at rachelle.hall@gccaz.edu or 623-845-3225.
The paid internship provides students a competitive advantage, allowing them to gain practical, real-world IT and workplace experience that Arizona’s employers desire. Through hands-on training, GSCO interns actively monitor and detect network and other operating systems abnormalities. Additionally, they promptly inform clients of issues discovered. This comprehensive approach ensures effective network management and system security. After completing the internship, students have gained 300 hours of experience working in a live security operations center.
“This internship helps us prepare to work in the field by giving us hands-on experience of what's to come when going into cybersecurity, whether working with software programs or working on physical hardware,” said Nikolas Hooper-Torres, GCC student and GSOC intern. “I would highly recommend this to other students who want to have a feel for what the field may bring and might even help them realize what areas they would like to focus their studies on. The most beneficial part of this internship to me is working with like-minded people who share the same goals and aren't afraid to put the time in to make it happen.”
Arizona is bridging the digital divide by investing $993 million in its broadband infrastructure. This substantial investment, made possible with a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) through the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, will enhance access to high-speed internet and expand IT career opportunities across the state.
As the work to connect Arizona to a robust broadband infrastructure begins, one of the five minimum requirements of the BEAD-funded program is to develop cybersecurity and supply chain risk management plans to ensure critical infrastructure is protected from security threats, such as hacking, ransomware attacks and data breaches. According to cyberseek.org, in Arizona, there are currently 12,537 job openings for cybersecurity professionals and 572,392 available jobs nationally.
Arizona’s ongoing expansion of high-speed internet access has created a surge in demand for qualified IT professionals specializing in cybersecurity, network and database administration, project management and system analysis. Maricopa Community Colleges now offers students interested in IT and cybersecurity the opportunity to explore two Bachelor of Applied Science degree programs in information technology and data analytics and programming, the GSOC program at GCC, as well as associate degrees and professional certificates in computer and information technology. To connect with Maricopa Community Colleges’ exceptional pool of candidates, interested employers can post open positions at mcccd.pipelineaz.com/.
Learn more about Maricopa Community Colleges at maricopa.edu.
The Maricopa County Community College District includes 10 individually-accredited colleges – Chandler-Gilbert, Estrella Mountain, GateWay, Glendale, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Rio Salado, Scottsdale and South Mountain – and the Maricopa Corporate College, serving approximately 140,000 students with bachelor’s degrees, two-year degrees, certificates and university transfer programs.