As part of an effort to address critical workforce gaps across government, the Department of Veterans Affairs is gearing up to launch a federal cybersecurity apprenticeship program this summer that will provide underserved veterans with the training needed to safeguard personal data and IT systems from an array of cyber threats.
In an interview with Nextgov, Nathan Tierney—VA’s chief people officer and deputy chief information officer—said the department’s new initiative is “focusing on veterans in underserved areas, folks that normally wouldn’t get into the cyber field, and providing an opportunity for them to receive on-the-job training for two years.” …
VA partnered with the Department of Labor in November 2022 to launch the apprenticeship program, which the White House referred to as a “scalable and sustainable model” that will “provide a pathway to quickly hire a diverse, underserved population of veterans into the federal government into cybersecurity roles to protect our nation’s most vulnerable systems’ dependability, integrity and data privacy.”
The initiative’s creation was announced during the Biden administration’s 120-day cybersecurity apprenticeship sprint, which sought to promote registered apprenticeships as a proven method for developing “a pipeline of skilled workers.” In a March 31 blog post, VA said its Office of Information and Technology was recognized by Labor earlier this year “for developing an innovative cybersecurity apprenticeship program” that enables veterans to “learn while they earn.” … Read the full article here.
