What is ACCCE?

Accelerating Community College Cybersecurity Excellence (ACCCE) is a collaborative project between Microsoft and the National Cybersecurity Training and Education Center (NCyTE) hosted at Whatcom Community College (WCC) in Bellingham, WA. The ACCCE project is funded by a grant from Microsoft to WCC.This project will support efforts to expand and diversify the U.S. cybersecurity workforce through providing resources, mentorship, and professional development opportunities to current and potential community college faculty. Learn more about Microsoft's involvement.

Challenges ACCCE Will Address

Over the past twenty years, cyberattacks have become a significant threat to our privacy, national security, and pocketbooks— and the needs of our cybersecurity workforce have increased accordingly. Today, the U.S. faces a troubling shortage of cybersecurity workers with the required education and skills to protect our nation.

Recent data from CyberSeek shows that the demand for cybersecurity workers has risen 94% since 2013 – three times faster than for IT positions overall. But the supply of qualified professionals is far too low. To address the talent gap, the U.S. must significantly expand the quantity and quality of its cybersecurity education programs, as well as corresponding enrollments and graduates. Community colleges play a critical role in this process. The ACCCE project will support the development of equitable pathways to cybersecurity jobs, creating an inclusive pipeline to feed the rapidly evolving cyber workforce.

Resources and Opportunities Provided by ACCCE

Program and Faculty Development 

Cybersecurity Education Program Development Workshops will help institutions start a cybersecurity education program and will include information on how to achieve Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) designation as a potential goal.

Support is available to assist community colleges with travel costs to attend an in-person Center of Academic Excellence–Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) Workshop. These workshops are for community colleges that are re-designating or applying for the CAE-CD designation for the first time.  Click here for more information about the Centers of Academic Excellence.

Faculty Development Academies will help community college faculty members in related fields (e.g., Business or IT) learn how to reskill and/or upskill in cybersecurity. The Academy will focus on developing knowledge of resources, emerging technologies, credentials, products, workforce statistics, and how to engage with regional industry.

The Tribal College Community of Practice (TCCP) brings together college leaders and instructors from Tribal Colleges to explore and identify ways to expand cybersecurity program capacity, adopt best practices, build relationships with employers, and collaborate on cybersecurity initiatives.

Support to attend the Cybersecurity Across Disciplines (CyAD) Conference - The intent of the conference is to bring together community/technical college faculty from different disciplines to provide an opportunity to explore the intersections between cybersecurity and various fields, identify common challenges, and develop strategies to teach cybersecurity in these fields. For more information, click here.

Student Opportunities

The National Community College Cybersecurity Fellowship Program will provide support and opportunities for underrepresented groups in cybersecurity (bachelor’s or master’s degree level) interested in teaching in the cybersecurity field. The program will:

• Provide experience leading a cybersecurity classroom to help prospective instructors make informed decisions about pursuing a full-time faculty position.
• Help participants gain experience in the creation of lesson plans, syllabi, use of tools to assess effectiveness of curriculum, cybersecurity program development application materials (CV, lesson plans, syllabus, etc.)
• Build a faculty pool that better reflects the diversity of the community college student population by expanding the pool of teaching candidates.

Click here for more information about the program.

If you are interested in hosting one of the fellowship students at your community college, then click here and complete the form at the bottom of the page.

ACCCE Interest Form

Interested in receiving updates when registration for events listed above becomes available? Fill out the form below!