June 25, 2024 – Washington, D.C.: The Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) today released the National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy: Initial Stages of Implementation, outlining the progress made since the office initially released the strategy in 2023. In a blog post announcing the report, titled “Unleashing America’s Cyber Talent,” Assistant National Cyber Director for Workforce, Training and Education Seeyew Mo, noted that “…demand for cyber talent is only going to grow. We are at a crucial point where we all must work together – across the Federal Government, private sector, academia and non-profits, and other stakeholders…”

Mo went on to outline several initial successes, including, “unprecedented” coordination across 35 Federal agencies; a shift in Federal hiring toward a skills-based approach to IT positions; identification of Federal investment opportunities to provide more access to these careers for Americans; and the cooperation of more than one hundred of agencies, associations, foundations, and academic institutions yielding $95 million in investments, 13,000 new hires in the field, and more than 1 million trained.

Cyber Florida at USF is proud to participate in this national initiative through several programs, including CyberWorks—which is part of the national CyberSkills2Work program—and the National Centers of Academic Excellence program managed by the National Security Agency.