Certificate of Achievement in Cybersecurity

The CyberSecurity Certificate is designed for people who are seeking employment with companies of all types. The scope of CyberSecurity is very broad, including both open-source and proprietary solutions. All organizations have a need for cybersecurity professionals. For example, a website developer is responsible for securing their website against different types of attacks; or a database engineer is responsible for granting secure access to data. The program provides 27 units of instruction on the deploying secure networks, the fundamentals of cybersecurity, ethical hacking, computer forensics and firewalls.

Currently, there is a significant undersupply of CyberSecurity workers compared to the demand in the Bay Area region. The median hourly wage for jobs in CyberSecurity is slightly under $60/hr.  Due to the high demand and relatively high wages for CyberSecurity jobs, we foresee that the demand for the certificate will be at least forty students per year. In addition, we expect to offer the courses as hybrid/online split format, which will attract a number of students statewide.

	Year 1: 2018-19	Year 2: 2019-20
Course #	Course Title	Annual Sections	Annual Enrollment	Annual Sections	AnnualEnrollment
C S 30A	INTRODUCTION TO LINUX	4	153	4	153
C S 50A	NETWORK BASICS	6	107	3	81
C S 53A	CYBERSECURITY FUNDAMENTALS	4	62	4	48
C S 53B	FIREWALLS & THREAT MANAGEMENT	2	26	2	28
C S 53C	ETHICAL HACKING	2	39	4	71
C S 53D	INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER FORENSICS	1	30	1	38

Students who earn this Certificate of Achievement in Cybersecurity that will be prepared for entry-level Cybersecurity jobs in less than one year. The certificate also serves as a strong foundation for those who wish to continue their training to achieve further certificates and degrees for higher-wage positions.

 

There are multiple career paths in the field of cybersecurity that require different skills and abilities. Companies and institutions need thousands of individuals who can perform business and operations analysis, risk assessment of processes and systems, expose operational and technological vulnerabilities, identify potential threats, and develop recommendations and technological solutions to strengthen defenses.

 

Program Learning Outcome:

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to design and implement security policies for organizations of all sizes.

Students are required to complete 6 courses total. 

Course	Title	Units	Year/Semester (Y1 or S1)
CS 30A	Intro to Linux	4.5 units	Y1 Fall
CS 50A	Network Basics	4.5 units	Y1 Fall
CS 53A	Cybersecurity Fundamentals	4.5 units	Y1Winter
CS 53B	Firewalls and Threat Management	4.5 units	Y1 Winter
CS 53 C	Ethical Hacking	4.5 units	Y1 Spring
CS 53D	Introduction to Computer Forensics	4.5 units	Y1 Spring

None at this time

The college will reach out to neighboring colleges to discuss program impact. Per LMI: Based on the data included in this report, there is a large labor market gap in the Bay Region with 11,607 annual openings for the Cyber Security occupational cluster and 112 annual (3-year average) awards from community colleges and other CTE Institutions for an annual undersupply of 11,495 students. In the Silicon Valley Sub-Region, there is also a gap with 3,652 annual openings and no annual (3-year average) awards for an annual undersupply of 3,652 students. UPDATE on 2/21: Foothill has sent emails to the deans overseeing cybersecurity programs to the following college: Solano, San Mateo, CCSF, Las Positas. We also contacted our sister college, DeAnza. We are currently in discussion with DeAnza as they have a cybersecurity program that has a different TOP code.