BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With more than 700,000 cybersecurity jobs unfilled across the United States, the recent White House National Cyber Workforce and Education Summit issued a call to action for help in securing a future in which all Americans have the opportunity to raise the bar on cybersecurity through greater awareness, education, and training.

"SANS Institute is eager to collaborate with the White House and amplify the impact of our reskilling academies for career changers and youth talent development programs to fill cybersecurity jobs today and in the future," said Eric Bassel, CEO at SANS Institute. "We pave a fast-track path for those entering the workforce and our programs have a deep and successful track record in providing the real-world skills employers need to future cybersecurity practitioners around the world."

Since 2015, SANS and its partners have provided more than $65 million in training and certification scholarships as well as free gamified competitions to empower U.S. career changers and students kickstarting careers in cybersecurity. SANS has also dedicated a large portion of these resources to underserved and diverse communities, including 100% scholarship-based specialty academies like the VetSuccess Academy, Women's Academy, Historically Black Colleges & Universities Academy, and the Cyber Diversity Academy. These academies have empowered thousands of adults with a high aptitude to achieve real-world job skills and validated certifications to launch a career in cybersecurity in as little as six months.

"We want to ensure all Americans can capitalize on the benefits of the digital domain," said Karen Evans, Former DHS CIO and Co-Chair of the recent NAPA Report on building the cyber workforce for DHS CISA. "SANS Institute is one of the most trusted names in cybersecurity training and education.  Their efforts to ensure our Nation carries through on the positive opportunities ahead of us are applauded. More initiatives to amplify the cyber workforce like this are needed."

CyberStart America, a training program for young adults, utilizes a gamified learning platform where students solve challenges in an interactive game with a rich narrative that ties back to real-world scenarios. Supported by SANS and the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation (NCSF), students start with the basics and build up skills over the game, discovering their love for cybersecurity in the process. This summer alone, over $4.4 million in SANS training & certification scholarships have been awarded to top performers of CyberStart to expedite their paths to a high-paying career they are passionate about.

"We are excited about programs such as CyberStart America that provide young Americans the needed skills to pursue cybersecurity education and careers," said Michele Guel, President of the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation, and former cybersecurity evangelist at Cisco. "The work of NCSF and SANS to empower young adults to gain real-world skills as well as become cyber aware is an important part of ensuring our nation is closing the talent gap and inspiring the next generation of security professionals."

"CyberStart gave me everything I needed to hit the ground running in cybersecurity, and just out of high school I landed a job as a cybersecurity analyst," said Emma Brun of Ohio, CyberStart America 2021-22 alumna. "After I earned my GFACT certification, I was positive this was the career I was meant to be in. None of that would've happened without NCSF and CyberStart. My life has been changed for the better in countless ways, and I'm now in the career of my dreams. I know for a fact there are countless other students who have benefited like I have!"

SANS programs include key wrap-around services to provide learner support, technical mentorships, career guidance, and soft skills training to ensure participants are ready to continue their education in cyber and move right into a job. These services support real-world results where bartenders, accountants, mechanics, physical therapists, and anyone else with no previous training can develop technical skills and achieve industry certifications to move into roles such as SOC Analyst, Cloud Security Engineer, and Incident Handler. These new roles support every industry, from private entities looking to protect personal services to government agencies responsible for protecting national security and securing our critical infrastructure and supply chains.

Learn more about the SANS mission, immersion academies, and CyberStart today. Your career in cybersecurity awaits!

About SANS Institute
The SANS Institute was established in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization. Today, SANS is the most trusted and, by far, the largest provider of cybersecurity training and certification to professionals in government and commercial institutions world-wide. Renowned SANS instructors teach more than 60 courses at in-person and virtual cybersecurity events and on demand. GIAC, an affiliate of the SANS Institute, validates practitioner skills through more than 35 hands-on, technical certifications in cybersecurity. The SANS Technology Institute, a regionally accredited independent subsidiary, offers master's and bachelor's degrees, graduate certificates, and an undergraduate certificate in cybersecurity. SANS Security Awareness, a division of SANS, provides organizations with a complete and comprehensive security awareness solution, enabling them to manage their "human" cybersecurity risk easily and effectively. SANS also delivers a wide variety of free resources to the InfoSec community including consensus projects, research reports, webcasts, podcasts, and newsletters; it also operates the Internet's early warning system–the Internet Storm Center. At the heart of SANS are the many security practitioners, representing varied global organizations from corporations to universities, working together to support and educate the global information security community. www.sans.org

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SOURCE SANS Institute