A new internship program in North Carolina will provide university students a chance to learn cybersecurity skills while working inside the state government.
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North Carolina’s technology department this week announced a new cybersecurity internship training program available to university students throughout the state.
Starting next fall semester, student interns attending schools in the state’s Carolina Cyber Network can work 25 hours per week in cybersecurity roles at the North Carolina Department of Information Technology.
According to a press release, the first college to send students to the state IT bureau will be Fayetteville Technical Community College.
“I want to make sure that we’re giving the opportunity they need, not only for real-world experience, but a real job at the end,” state Chief Information Officer Teena Piccione said at a press event at FTCC on Monday. “Because that’s what matters. That is going to make the difference in our state.”
The initiative expands the work of the Carolina Cyber Network, which was created to boost the state’s cyber workforce pipeline and provide various training opportunities for students.
Such partnerships with community colleges and other higher education institutions have become an increasingly popular way for state governments to bolster their technical workforces. Nevada CIO Timothy Galluzi recently told StateScoop his state was considering a similar initiative designed to attract new talent, modeled after work seen for several years in Texas, which operates regional SOCs staffed by university students.
Competing with the private sector for IT workers is an ongoing challenge for states. At a hearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security last February, several experts argued that the public sector should boost support for internship and other workforce programs.
Competing with the private sector is in part made challenging with the public sector’s lower wages. An average cyber salary in the private sector was $100,000 in 2022, 14% higher than in government, according to one report. Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., said at that hearing that while salaries should be raised, government should also focus on developing a more “purpose-driven workforce.”
“A third of federal employees are veterans, and it’s because they care,” he said in February. “They serve the country, and they’re uniform, and they want to serve their country as civil servants.”
