New grants received by Bluegrass Community and Technical College will create a new certification program in healthcare cybersecurity while recruiting a diverse student body to fill in-demand jobs in the industry.
Two grants totalling $482,188 were awarded to Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC) for the purposes of developing a Healthcare Cybersecurity program as well as increasing diversity in its cybersecurity programs. The new program expects to begin with its first group of students by the Spring 2021 semester. BCTC will rely on its established history of education in the field of cybersecurity to prepare students for a career in the high-demand field of healthcare-focused cybersecurity. Students will learn about the cutting-edge technology being used by professionals today to guard the private health information of patients and security biometrics.
The funding comes from two separate grants awarded to BCTC. The first is worth $308,517 to be paid over two years and comes from the National Security Agency (NSA). It will support a collaboration with other colleges and universities to create a curriculum focused on developing talent regionally, training students on two subsets of cybersecurity; Healthcare and biometrics. The second grant, totalling $173,671, again over two years, comes from the NSA as well, through the Fordham Center for Cybersecurity. This grant is earmarked for to build educational opportunities in cybersecurity for underrepresented communities. The programs developed are also intended to provide training for 200 military veterans and first responders free of charge.
Bluegrass Community and Technical College has an established history of working with the NSA in providing educational opportunities for students interested in a career in cybersecurity. BCTC was the first community college in Kentucky to receive designation from the NSA and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education. BCTC students enrolled in eligible programs are able to access scholarships and grants provided by the Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program and the Federal Cyber Service Scholarship for Service Program.
The Department of Computer and Information Technologies (CIT) Dana Brown (Associate Professor) and Melanie Williamson (Academic Dean) are providing technical expertise and will contribute to designing the certificate program's curriculum. The certification will be a six-month program and credits will be applicable to two and four year degree programs. A stated goal of the program will be to address the misconception that cybersecurity only involves computer science and programming. Director of the Fordham Center for Cybersecurity states in a press release from BCTC that, "One of the ways to address that misconception and attract a more diverse workforce to cybersecurity is to attract students from other disciplines, including business, criminal justice and political science." The same release states that Robert Chirwa, professor of CIT at BCTC, is tasked with finding ways to encourage participation by prospective students in underrepresented populations in the region in the certification program.