The RH Strategic Podcast recently sat with Jennifer Thornton, Greater Washington Partnership’s director of workforce initiatives, at the 2018 DCA BIG Cyber Growth Summit in Crystal City, Virginia.
In our podcast, Thornton reveals new research on the Capital Region’s cyber workforce, how to bring more diversity to the field, and most critically, how to align supply and demand for cyber talent.
“80 percent of [cyber] job openings require a bachelor’s degree, yet only two-thirds of the people in the workforce currently have a bachelor’s degree [related to] cybersecurity. So clearly, these employers have found that people can do the jobs without a bachelor’s degree,” Thornton said. “What are some creative solutions [that employers are] interested in looking at? Can we do more around apprenticeship? Around skills-based hiring? You come in with an associate’s degree or a certificate and then work on a [bachelor’s] degree. Can you look at senior positions and junior positions and not fill everything at the same level? I think there are many ways that could work – because different employers are going to have different things that they’re comfortable with.”
Hear more from Thornton in the podcast below.
***
Tweet us at @RHStrategic with the hashtag #RHetoricBlog.
RH Strategic is a Seattle and D.C.-based communications firm providing strategic public relations for innovators in the technology, public sector and healthcare markets. Learn more about our cybersecurity practice.
