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St. Louis Apprenticeship Program to Fill Cybersecurity Workforce Gap

The organization, called MC² for short, announced that it will seek to chip away at the shortage through an apprenticeship program.

(TNS) — The growing need to bolster cybersecurity is so great that jobs in the industry are becoming hard to fill. 

Metro St. Louis has 3,813 unfilled cybersecurity jobs, according to a supply and demand “heat map” on the website cyberseek.org.

Nationally, the number measures in the hundreds of thousands and is projected to grow to 1.8 million by 2022, according to Jason Carter, board president of the Midwest Cyber Center, a nonprofit group run out of Scott Air Force Base.

The organization, called MC² for short, announced a partnership Tuesday with the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE) that seeks to chip away at the shortage through an apprenticeship program.

The paid, 18-month program will pair individuals with area businesses looking to address cybersecurity issues. Apprentices will work about 32 hours per week at the businesses and spend some time receiving training and instruction from MC².

The apprenticeships are open to anyone 18 or older with a high school degree or GED.

“It’s exciting for me to sit here and think about the impact this can have on our region,” said Tony Bryan, executive director of MC². The number of apprenticeships will depend on how many businesses get involved, he said.

Candidates will complete the program with two industry certifications, and potentially with job offers. Officials at Tuesday’s announcement cited strong demand for cybersecurity from hospitals such as BJC HealthCare and government entities such as Scott Air Force Base and the soon-to-be-relocated National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, or NGA.

“With Scott, with NGA coming ... do we have people in this region who can do the work that these places need to do?” said Michael Holmes, executive director for SLATE. His agency will process applications and fund MC²’s apprentice training.

Applications for the program open Monday and apprenticeships could start as early as June, Bryan said.

©2017 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.