While employers may dream of an experienced, industry-savvy new hire, not all have that luxury – a reality that’s particularly apparent in cybersecurity and information technology sectors, says Lisa Shorr, co-owner of Warwick-based Secure Future Tech Solutions.
Still, she says, the company isn’t starving for talent among its ranks – getting there has just required some patience and extra legwork.
Many of Secure Future Tech Solutions’ employees came to the company lacking some knowledge required for their jobs, but possessing “a great technical aptitude,” Shorr said, “and we were then able to shape them into really great technicians and engineers.”
With the rapidly evolving nature of the sector and company-specific nuances to approaching technology, Shorr expects that most cybersecurity and IT companies will need to take this approach, if they haven’t already started.
“We need talented tech people, but we’ve also taken a stance at our company of training tech people as well,” Shorr said. “We’ve learned that sometimes you have to play the longer game and take someone who has basic talent and grow them into this amazing role.”
The numbers support Shorr’s approach. Throughout the U.S., jobs in the cybersecurity and information technology sectors are in high demand, according to data compiled by Cyberseek, a project funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education partnership.
And Rhode Island lags behind most of the U.S., NICE indicates: the Ocean State has enough cybersecurity workers to fill 69% of in-demand jobs, compared with the national average of 83%. As of September 2023, through August 2024, NICE determined that Rhode Island had 2,911 unfilled cybersecurity job openings.
Demand will only continue to increase, observers say.
In an effort to support a workforce equipped to fill these positions, Rhode Island College launched its Institute for Cybersecurity & Emerging Technologies in November 2023, supported by $73 million in voter-approved bond funding and led by former U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin, who currently serves as distinguished chair.
[caption id="attachment_507247" align="alignright" width="358"]
STEADY GROWTH: Vivian Orozco, top; Sean Joaseus, right; and Marianny Rosario, foreground, all of Providence, are students in a cyber training class at the Institute for Cybersecurity & Emerging Technologies at Rhode Island College. There are about 100 currently enrolled in RIC’s cybersecurity major program, with a new cohort of 70-100 students expected to enroll in the next major or minor program.
PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
Douglas S. Alexander, inaugural director of the institute, says that RIC has been ramping up efforts to prepare the workforce but chases a moving finish line.
“What is for sure is there isn’t going to be a reduction in force of cybersecurity jobs and needs,” Alexander said. “An unfortunate truth of today [is] it’s never been easier to be a hacker or a scammer.”
Most of these openings fall under oversight and governance sectors, according to NICE, followed by design and development; implementation and operation; protection and defense; and cyberspace effects.
According to R.I. Department of Labor and Training data, the state employed 8,428 people across custom computing programming services, IT-related technology sectors and the information sector as of the third quarter of 2024.
About 100 students are enrolled in RIC’s cybersecurity major program, with a new cohort of between 70-100 students expected to enroll in the next major or minor program. The institute also added an artificial intelligence major this year, with 10-15 students signed on.
RIC also offers an entry-level cybersecurity certificate program, run out of its Workforce Development Hub in Central Falls.
But even the most in-depth education can only go so far in preparing students to meet the needs of a rapidly shifting technology landscape, Alexander said.
Employers “want to see certifications, they want to see proof of skills and experience to really be confident in a hire,” Alexander noted. “But it’s hard, because it’s never the same industry every year.”
He added, “The tension in this field is that you’re teaching students who aren’t going to be job ready for another three to four years.”
And “as much as we’re going to try,” to educate a cybersecurity workforce, “there’s no substitute for actual, in-office experience working with a team in a production environment,” Alexander said.
David Marble, CEO and president of Warwick-based OSHEAN Inc., has also noted a sharp increase in a need for cybersecurity and information technology professionals.
“A risk issue to the enterprise affects almost every facet of the company,” Marble said, “so it’s not just a technical issue. It’s a corporate or enterprise risk issue as well.”
As a nonprofit coalition providing internet and technology services to member institutions such as K-12 schools, universities, government agencies and hospitals, OSHEAN has been ahead of the game in keeping up with cybersecurity workforce needs.
The coalition’s range of membership highlights the broad opportunities a cybersecurity or IT education can provide, Marble says – a point he stresses when encouraging young people to consider the field.
“When a kid thinks about cybersecurity, they might think that they would sit in front of a computer for their whole life and program,” Marble said. “It’s not necessarily like that. There are a lot of different areas that you can go into that sort of pry your fingers off the keyboard.
“You can apply that [cyber] knowledge to any other vertical industry that you might be interested in,” he continued, in settings such as universities, hospitals, state government and the finance industry.
And cybersecurity skills are becoming increasingly important in roles that typically didn’t focus so much on this area, Marble said. OSEHAN established a dedicated cybersecurity department eight years ago, Marble said, with a three-person team overseeing responsibilities that used to be distributed across the organization’s broader engineering team.
While this department takes on the heavy lifting in cybersecurity and IT, engineering staff remains well-versed in the subject matter, with a knowledge base bolstered by ample internal training.
“It’s in our DNA at this point throughout the company,” Marble said, “and it’s getting much bigger with our members over time because we help educate our members as well.”
Though this hands-on, employer-provided training will remain a vital component of building Rhode Island‘s cybersecurity and IT workforce, observers say, employers such as Shorr still believe that programs such as RIC’s are needed.
Currently, most Secure Future Tech Solutions workers come to the company as engineers with some level of cybersecurity certification, often through programs offered at institutions such as MTTI Career & Technical Trade School in Seekonk.
But there’s also a valuable place for programs offered by colleges and universities such as RIC, New England Institute of Technology, and the University of Rhode Island, Shorr says.
“The knowledge is going to grow, and I think the new cyber programs will make it a little easier for us,” Shorr said.
“Each company has its own culture, its own policies and procedures, so there will always be an element of training,” she continued, but “there’s hope that more talent will come to us with more knowledge, so we can have [employees] hit the ground sooner.”
