Anyone who’s had the opportunity
The teachers we have known would answer the first question this way: “It is now.” The second question, however, may not lend itself to such a snappy response if the subject matter is, say, Shakespeare or U.S. history. (No letters, please; we love those subjects.)
Relevance isn’t an issue for LeRoy Martelle.
As the computer technology applications teacher at the Hartford Area Career and Technology Center, Martelle is preparing to lead a new program that will focus on a highly relevant topic: cybersecurity.
As staff writer Matt Hongoltz-Hetling reported earlier this month, once Martelle completes the training, he will be Vermont’s only certified cybersecurity instructor in the program, which was developed by an Indianapolis-based education nonprofit called Project Lead the Way.
How relevant is the program? For one thing, it addresses a critical shortage of computer science learning opportunities in Vermont’s school system. As Hongoltz-Hetling reported, Project Lead the Way found that only 12 Vermont high schools offer an advanced placement computer science course, and the state turned out just 163 computer science-trained high school graduates in 2015. Further, Vermont’s computer engineering workforce ranked 28th in the nation, with just 1.87 percent of the state’s workers classified as computer specialists, according to the Vermont Technology Council.
For another, cybersecurity is as relevant as tomorrow’s headlines. America’s enemies — from state actors like Russia, China and North Korea to nonstate terror groups like the so-called Islamic State to boiler-room scam operations at home and abroad — are working this very minute to disrupt our democratic institutions, sow division among the populace and steal our money. The methods they employ — hacking into computer systems, luring the unwary with bogus emails, deploying armies of “bots” to spread disinformation and inflammatory messages — are constantly mutating and the bad guys are relentlessly searching for new ways to do their dirty work.
“We’ve seen continuing growth of the cybersecurity threat and the need for cybersecurity professionals,” Doug Heavisides, director of the career center, told Hongoltz-Hetling.
Developing a robust system of education and training programs to counter these threats is critical to America’s security. For students, the rewards of becoming a cybersecurity professional are more than patriotic: A 2016 report by Forbes magazine put the number of cybersecurity job openings in the U.S. at more than 1 million, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics says the median salary for an information security analyst is $92,600 a year.
How’s that for relevant?
Vermont’s aging population and shrinking workforce pose significant demographic challenges for the state. One part of the solution, one way to attract young families to the state and perhaps give young people already here a reason to stay, is ensuring that Vermont’s schools have 21st-century educational opportunities of the kind they’ll find in the HACTC’s new cybersecurity program.
For their part, the students who have already signed up for Martelle’s new class seem to be coming at it with exactly the right attitude.
Jacob Friesenhahn, 17, a junior from Windsor who is aiming for a job helping companies defend themselves against cyber intrusions, said he knows it’s going to take “a very smart person,” to counter those threats. And Ben Blanchard, 17, of Woodstock, said Martelle has done a good job teaching them the difference between illegal and ethical hacking. “Ethical hacking is the really cool one,” he said.
That’s definitely going to be on the test.