Harper College will be closed Monday, December 23 through Wednesday, January 1 for Winter Break.
You hear it on the news all the time – a large company gets hit by a cyberattack and
its customers’ personal data is exposed.
This has led many companies to beef up their cybersecurity teams. It’s also led Harper College to create three new cybersecurity certificates and an associate degree program to prepare students for jobs in this booming field.
Starting this fall, Harper will offer college credit certificates and an Associate in Applied Science degree in cybersecurity. The certificates, which can be earned individually or “stacked” for a degree, are:
The courses, offered both during the day and in the evenings, complement Harper’s existing Information Technology (IT) programs, geared toward careers in IT, networking and support. If they choose, students can then apply their associate degree toward a bachelor’s degree from a four-year college.
“Cybersecurity is another level up from IT, and requires more specific expertise,” said Martha Karavitis-Hemmati, director of Harper’s SCC3 Grant Program. “We’ve had so much interest in this already from people, including people who work in IT and even high school students. It’s because it’s intriguing and exciting and innovative and ever-changing.”
The cybersecurity field is projected to grow by 242% in the next 10 years, according to the Comp TIA State of Tech Workforce 2023 Report.
As companies collect more data about their customers and website users, there’s more information for companies to secure.
“There’s such a huge need, and this new program will help address that need,” said Dr. Joanne Ivory, Harper’s dean of Career and Technical Programs.
The cybersecurity program was developed using input from Harper’s faculty and its regional Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT), including corporate partners such as Northrop Grumman, Gallagher, Motorola Solutions and Zurich Insurance.
“We want their insights, because the goal is to have these employers hire our students,” Karavitis-Hemmati said. “We want to know what they want, and make sure we’re teaching the student the skills they need.”
Anyone thinking about a career in cybersecurity can start with the Orientation to Cybersecurity Careers course. It’s designed to give students a realistic expectation of what jobs in this field will be like.
Most of the jobs won’t be like what students see on TV shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. However, one of the program’s classes is called Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing, which focuses on digital forensics and cybercrime solving. It will teach students how to identify vulnerabilities in a system, analyze evidence from a cybercrime, and explain how deleted files and lost emails are recovered.
Along with its fresh, expert-designed material, perhaps the most attractive feature of Harper’s new cybersecurity certificate and degree program is its affordability said Jacob Bond, a full-time cybersecurity analyst who will be teaching two of its evening classes.
“If you’re just as capable, you can get the exact same jobs as people who come from
more expensive schools,” said Bond, a community college graduate himself. “Hiring
managers prioritize skill over where you went to school. They just want strong talent.
That’s why Harper College can really offer a financially wise option to get this education.”
Harper is committed to providing an affordable education for people in the community, so they can have a successful career and an income which allows them to live comfortably and support a family.
“We take our commitment very seriously,” Ivory said. “Harper really is a great resource for the community.”
Harper’s new employer-driven cybersecurity program is part of the college’s Innovation Accelerator unit and is funded by a four-year, $1.6 million U.S. Department of Labor Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grant (better known as an SCC3 grant). This degree program grew from cybersecurity courses offered through Community Education (CE) and Continuing Professional Education (CPE) classes.
These options remain available for those interested in non-credit cybersecurity courses, along with courses in artificial intelligence, machine learning and cloud computing that are available as CE and CPE offerings. The college continues to explore opportunities to expand its technology programs. Harper faculty, staff and BILT Council members are refining and evaluating these CE and CPE courses, which have the potential to become credit-bearing programs.
For more information on any of the programs, email ctpdivision@harpercollege.edu.