COLORADO SPRINGS — Thousands of people across Colorado are unemployed right now so the question for many: Will I get my job back?
With that in mind it might be time to consider other options and one career opportunity that is highly recommended: cybersecurity. It's a field that's growing every day.
Thanks to an almost $3 million grant from the Economic Development Administration the University of Colorado Colorado Springs will be expanding the facility that houses the National Cybersecurity Center and other organizations. Officials say the project should be completed sometime in 2021. It means more training and job opportunities for people who want to enter this field.
Tom Dewar, senior development director at UCCS, said, "The expansion literally gives us the physical space in order to have enough classrooms to satisfy the need in the cyber area."
It's a field that's not going away anytime soon.
Dewar said, "In the state of Colorado the most recent number I heard was around 11,000 open cyber jobs."
With this future expansion Vance Brown, CEO of the National Cybersecurity Center, believes thousands of additional jobs will be created.
Brown said, "I cannot envision any kind of...career or market that I think has a better future right now."
The future - that's what so many people are worried about especially when it comes to employment.
Brown said, "We're all very sad for...all the jobs lost. Sometimes, though, it takes a certain crisis like this for people to reconsider...maybe this is a silver lining. Maybe it's a time to just start over and do something new and different."
People can do that through a degree program or some kind of certification that could take a few months.
Dewar said, "There is also the option at UCCS or any other education institution, typically, to take non-degree-oriented courses so someone could come to UCCS and take one of our cybersecurity classes."
Brown shared that it's great if you have a STEM background, but for those who don't there are other options.
He said, "Degrees in psychology, etc. are also becoming more and more important related to all the psychological schemes to hack into your systems...I think this is a great time to consider maybe a pivot."
For those with no cybersecurity experience right now Brown recommends getting training through a local college or an organization like SecureSet. NCC is considering training for brand new people with the additional classroom space it will have.
