Cyber Security in CTE

Have you ever thought about a topic that you truly felt needed to be a CTE program of study? If you have, what steps have you taken in order to make it happen? What topic was it? 

At the end of the 2014-2015 school year, I was introduced to a Cyber security competition that I chose to introduce to my high school CTE Computer Science students. However, in order for the students who were interested, to get credit on their high school transcript for the competition and knowledge, I needed to be creative to figure out a time that would not interfere with the schedule that they had already created for the following school year. So, 6am it was!

I approached my administrators and let them know what I had done and that I had a commitment from students that they want to be a part of a 6am class. Soooooo, at 6am on the first day of the 2015-2016 school year, I had 12 students show up ready to learn about Cyber security. As their excitement to learn more about the topic and the competition grew, I knew that I needed to do more than just have a 6am elective for that to happen. From there, I approached the state about making Cyber security a CTE program of study.

In 2017, the process started. Members of industry, post-secondary, and secondary education got together to talk about what is most important to make sure that students are aware of and educated about in the field of Cyber security. After many collaborative meetings and hours of standards writing, the CTE Cyber security Program of Study was born. 

Due to the importance of the topic and true need for qualified and properly trained Cyber security professionals, the program of study was the quickest approved by the state. History was made in the 2018-2019 school year and high school Cyber security students were recognized for their dedication and skill.