CYBERSECURITY APPRENTICES GRADUATE CYBERWYOMING PROGRAM
FORT COLLINS – Two DigeTekS LLC Cybersecurity Support Technician Registered Apprentices, Dylan Wood of Laramie and Robert Works of Fort Collins, graduated from the Department of Labor approved program after a year of study and on-the-job learning.
“This apprenticeship placed me into real incident response and threat hunting. Talented mentors guided my learning and helped me grow professionally,” said Wood.
“The Cybersecurity Technician Apprenticeship through CyberWyoming as an incredible experience that provided me the opportunity to develop my cybersecurity, networking, and general IT skills. The value of this program for me was learning skills that are valuable right now in the IT/cybersecurity field as well as soft skills that are important for every professional,” said Works.
There are over 1,100 job openings related to cybersecurity in Wyoming and over 1300 in the Fort Collins, Greeley and Longmont-Boulder area, according to Cyberseek.org. Through its initiatives, DigeTekS LLC is helping strengthen the pipeline of skilled information technology professionals.
“DigeTekS has had 8 technology Registered Apprentices in CyberWyoming’s program since 2020. All except for one still work at DigeTekS. I think that kind of employee retention shows the program’s worth,” said Laura Baker, Executive Director of CyberWyoming, the sponsor of the Registered Apprenticeship program.
The Cybersecurity Technician Apprenticeship encourages mastery through eight job functions. The job functions focus on developing security policies and protocols, desktop support for end users, network management and operations, server management, detection and prevention of threats, risk management and business continuity, identifying suspicious activity on the network, and responding to cyberattacks with defensive strategies.
CyberWyoming sponsors three Department of Labor approved Registered Apprenticeship programs. The IT Specialist, for entry level professionals, and Cybersecurity Support Technician, for more advanced employees, were developed for technical professionals. These apprenticeship training programs were developed in 2017 and 2018 and have now been adopted by other organizations nationwide. The third Registered Apprenticeship program, the Cybersecurity Business Counselor (CBC) occupation, was developed in 2023 to help business advisors upskill and incorporate cybersecurity into their day to day advising strategies. The CBC program remains proprietary to CyberWyoming.
“Registered apprenticeship isn’t just for plumbing, welding, and electrical anymore. In our digitally connected age, it must include technical professions, business, and cybersecurity,” said Laura Baker, CyberWyoming Executive Director, a statewide nonprofit organization based in Laramie.
The CyberWyoming technical Registered Apprenticeship programs are free for any employer willing to technically mentor a new professional. As a part of the program, CyberWyoming requires each apprentice to undergo soft skills training on such topics as strategic planning for tech to conflict management and more. Wyoming employers receive these soft skills trainings for free due to the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services Apprenticeship Expansion Grant. Colorado employers will soon be offered the same benefit as CyberWyoming recently won the Colorado Apprenticeship Incentive grant.
“We are so tickled to receive the Colorado Apprenticeship Incentive Grant! We believe that today’s technology apprentices are tomorrow’s I.T. managers,” said Baker. She went on to explain that statistically employers benefit from apprenticeship with increased employee engagement, better trained employees, and higher retention levels.
Benefits to apprentices are evident from this article including additional training grants and scholarships as well as a Department of Labor certificate upon completion of the program. Wood finished his Microsoft 102 and Microsoft 700 certificates while Works came into the Registered Apprenticeship program with CompTIA’s Network+, Security+, Linux+, CySA+, and PenTest+ certificates.
“We think of apprenticeship as dual-credit for the apprentice,” said Baker. “They get to work on their industry and vendor specific certifications while also getting credit through the apprenticeship.”
For more information about technical apprenticeship in Wyoming, contact CyberWyoming at [email protected].