Lone Star College offering apprenticeships in cyber security, other jobs
With employees around the region, across the United States and throughout the world looking for workers skilled in cyber security, Lone Star College will soon be offering apprenticeship programs to train students to work in cyber security and other industries to try to fill the growing demand for workers.
The college is set to begin its registered apprenticeship programs where students will be able to “earn while they learn” while getting trained in cyber security, as well as other trades including mechatronics, machining and as field service technicians.
The apprenticeship programs, which will begin in January, will be taught at the college’s various campuses, including LSCCyFair, LSC-North Harris and LSC-University Park, according to Caroline Williamson, Lone Star College’s executive director of LSC Workforce Project Development.
Lone Star is offering the apprenticeship training through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor, with the college saying in a release announcing the program that it’s the first college in Texas to offer the registered programs through the federal agency. The apprenticeships are new programs and not an expansion of current programs.
The apprenticeship programs come at a time when demand for workers offering cyber security skills booms. According to a nonprofit security research group called Information Systems Audit and Control Association, there’s already such a growing demand of skilled workers in the field that by January of 2019 there’s expected to be a worldwide shortage of an estimated two million cyber security workers. And the association notes that even though demand for information technology professionals is already in high gear, the demand for cyber security professionals to work in IT is growing three times as fast.
So beside preparing themselves to ride the wave of this cyber security hiring frenzy, Lone Star officials say students enrolling in the apprenticeship programs can also earn money along the way.
“Lone Star College will customize each apprenticeship program to fit the company’s need, based on industry standard and required curriculum or hours,” Williamson said.
Locally, Williamson notes, The Texas Workforce Commission reports that the need for information security analysts in the Texas Gulf Coast region will jump more than 26 percent from 2014 to 2024. And, beside cyber security programs, Lone Star will also be offering apprenticeships in mechatronics, machining and field service technology.
The field of mechatronics is a relatively new term of a field that describes the combined training of mechanical engineering, electronics and other skills to repair automated machines and robotic equipment. Demand for such workers is especially high locally, with The Houston Chronicle reporting that trained workers are in big demand among Houston’s major employers, including Daikin, HP, National Oilwell Varco and Halliburton. And nationwide, the newspaper reported there were 388,000 openings in the field, with the jobs being described as “well-paying.”
Lone Star and federal labor officials say besides earning money while preparing for work in these booming and high-paying fields, the college’s apprenticeship programs are also flexible, allowing students to work and hopefully avoid taking out loans to finance their education. The college’s job placement services department also works to connect students with hiring companies.
“Students can earn while they learn, reducing the need to take on debt,” U.S. Department of Labor representative James Carnes said in a statement included in Lone Star’s release.
Besides its apprenticeship programs Lone Star is also moving forward with a plan to open a seventh campus, which would likely be open in the spring of 2019. That campus would serve students who now take classes at satellite centers in north Harris County.
With its current six campuses Lone Star officials say the college is the largest higher learning institution in the Houston area providing training and classes to 99,000 students a semester.