Cybersecurity is a burgeoning industry, and the Department of Energy is seizing the opportunity to cultivate a diverse job-applicant pool that tech employers will be able to sift through in the years to come. On Thursday senior officials from the Obama administration announced that they are doling out a $25 million grant over the next five years to fund a “strong pipeline of talent from minority-serving institutions to DOE labs,” a press statement from Vice President Joe Biden’s office read.
Biden, along with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and White House Science Adviser John Holdren, introduced the pipeline initiative Thursday to a roundtable of students at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Va.
The Cybersecurity Workforce Pipeline Consortium consists of 13 HBCUs, two Department of Energy labs and the Charleston County School District in South Carolina. Its goal is to create “a sustainable pipeline of students focused on cybersecurity issues,” the statement continued.
Norfolk State University is one of the 13 participating HBCUs; others include Clark Atlanta University, Bowie State University and Benedict College. The government’s Sandia National Laboratory is also a part of the consortium.
The statement went on to reiterate a talking point that President Barack Obama has been making during his remarks about the significance of cybersecurity: “The demand for cybersecurity workers is growing 12 times faster than the U.S. job market, and is creating well-paying jobs.”
Read more at the White House.