Microsoft Corp. has announced its plan to work with community colleges across the United States to fill 250,000 cybersecurity jobs over the next 4 years. The purpose is to address the continued workforce shortage in the industry and provide job opportunities for community college students.

Microsoft’s Plan

Microsoft said that it will provide assistance and scholarships to around 25,000 students. They will also provide training to new and existing teachers at 150 community colleges across the U.S. and will also provide free curriculum in the community colleges. They will inject tens of millions of dollars for this project and consider it as a start. Many of the cybersecurity jobs do not need a four-year degree but they required specialized trainings. Average salary for these jobs will be around $105,000.

Cyberattacks are on a Boom

United States has faced some of the most sophisticated hacks in the recent era. Hacks like SolarWinds has affected many entities including many in the Federal government. In August, President Joe Biden held a meeting with Microsoft and other large companies with an aim to improve technology security. Brad Smith said that many of their clients are witnessing hacks and companies can avoid this onslaught by the hackers. But limited infrastructure and cybersecurity professionals was a hinderance. The tech giant intends to implement the initiative immediately so cybersecurity professionals can be trained quickly. There are about 464,000 open jobs in U.S. which needs cybersecurity skills. This accounts for 6% of all open jobs in the country.

Since many companies in U.S. are becoming victims of cyberattacks, therefore it is highly important to fill hundreds and thousands vacant jobs. The criminal organizations have the latest ransomware and are increasing the onslaught. Earlier in 2021, a major oil pipeline and a huge meat processing company were attacked by cybercriminals who demanded huge ransom to unlock their systems. Both the companies ended up paying the money to the criminals but the attacks also caused gasoline and meat shortage.

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