Girl Scouts offer badges for modern era
Forget earning badges for cooking and sewing abilities, or just selling cookies. The Girl Scouts of the USA soon will be offering a series of cybersecurity badges for girls K-12, thanks to a collaboration with Palo Alto Networks.
The badges — insignia Scouts display to proclaim their skills — will help the girls explore the world of science, technology, engineering and math — known as STEM — while building leadership qualities. There will be 18 ways for Girl Scouts to earn cyber badges, although the tasks that girls must perform to earn the badges are still being developed. The badges are part of a broader Girl Scouts effort to expose girls to STEM, offering greater possibilities for educational choices and careers.
September 2018 is the target date for cyber badges to be offered. For younger girls, there will be games and hands-on activities, while older girls will have mentors and take field trips to learn more about the cyber world. It’s an opportunity to understand how computers work, how viruses spread and how crooks try to steal personal information. Even if a girl does not want to become a cyber professional, she will be better equipped to protect her personal information in the online world.
With a worldwide shortage of cyber experts anticipated, the Girl Scouts who take part in earning these badges could be cementing solid futures. The latest Cybersecurity Jobs Report by Cybersecurity Ventures, the worldwide deficit of qualified cybersecurity professionals could reach 3.5 million by 2021. Currently, female professionals make up just 11 percent of that workforce. Recruiting youngsters is an obvious way to improve that number.
With Girl Scouts of the USA now 1.8 million strong, there’s definitely a future bunch of experts waiting to be tapped. What’s more, one way to improve the pay disparity between men and women is for women to move into fields traditionally filled by men.
Girls who can operate computers, build code and run down hackers will grow into women who can hold down demanding jobs for competitive salaries. And, if they have been Girl Scouts, they likely will know how to cook a decent dinner and sew on a button, too. Because Girl Scouts, after all, always has been about enabling girls and providing them with wide-open choices for the future. Cyber badges are just another way to hand girls opportunities to shine.