In an effort to promote greater cybersecurity education, Advancing Minorities’ Interest in Engineering (AMIE) is collaborating with tech giants Abbott, Microsoft, and Raytheon Technologies to develop a richer engineering curriculum at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs. 

The HBCU Cybersecurity Industry Collaboration Initiative Pilot is said to run through the end 2022 and is designed to develop students at HBCUs for career readiness in cybersecurity and engineering post-grad roles. 

The initiative will incorporate guest lecturers, research collaborations and mentoring programs at Hampton University, North Carolina A&T University, Prairie View A&M University, and Virginia State University.

The need for cybersecurity skilled workers in the US has reached a new height — currently, there are 600,000 unfilled positions in cybersecurity nationwide. That number is expected to jump around 17%, and total 3.5 million jobs by 2025, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. 

In the U.S., there are 15 total HBCU schools in the country that are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, which is a token of qualification at a school’s program. 

However, HBCUs represent less than 3% of nationally accredited institutes, although graduating more than 30% of African-American engineers in the United States, according to AMIE. Only 11.8% of US information security analysts are African-American, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. 

This collaboration will place these schools at a competitive advantage for the future of cybersecurity and engineering curriculums in higher education, according to the announcement.

“Closing the enormous cybersecurity skills gap and driving diversity in our talent pipeline are critical business imperatives….” said Shanda Hinton, Chief Diversity Officer at Raytheon Technologies, in a press release about the collaboration. “This alliance offers real world education, experience, and mentorship opportunities to HBCU engineering students to help cultivate the next generation of cyber defenders.”

Abbott, Microsoft, and Raytheon Technologies aim to align trending business needs, such as skills companies are seeking, within the pilot engineering schools. All three corporations will be providing funding for these schools. 

Along with additional funding, Abbott is hosting internship experiences for two cybersecurity students coming from Prairie View A&M University. Raytheon will be focusing on working with local students in the pilot schools to provide them support and opportunities in cyber careers. 

The end game of this and future AIME initiatives is to bridge the talent gap for minorities in cybersecurity and engineering careers, according to an announcement.

By the end of 2022, AIME hopes to extend this initiative to the last 11 Historically Black Colleges and Universities that are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.

The remaining accredited HBCU Schools of Engineering are Alabama A&M University, Florida A&M University, Howard University, Jackson State University, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, Southern University, Tennessee State University, Tuskegee University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore and the University of the District of Columbia.

Last October, Microsoft launched its own Cybersecurity Skills initiative to work with community colleges. The corporation has a goal of redressing the workforce shortage and to recruit students in the cybersecurity profession at Microsoft and thousands of other employers across the U.S., according to Microsoft. 

“We recognize that no one has a higher responsibility to address cybersecurity threats than leading tech companies,” Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, wrote in a company blog in October. “Until we redress the cybersecurity workforce shortage, we will fall short in strengthening the country’s cybersecurity team.”