According to a recent news release, new funding supports the Cyber Workforce Accelerator (CWA) program, a collaborative initiative between the Maryland Association of Community Colleges and cybersecurity training company BCR Cyber. A primary focus of the program is bringing 13 BCR cyber ranges, which allow trainees to respond to simulated cyber attacks, to the state’s community colleges.
This is at least the third new funding announcement for Maryland's CWA program in the past year, following other state investments through agencies such as the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor and the governor’s office. Announcements have cited the great demand for cybersecurity professionals in Maryland, and the ability of community colleges to reach students that may have been underserved in the past.
The new TEDCO Equitech Growth Fund has a similar joint goal. In 2024, Maryland established the Equitech Growth Fund and corresponding 24-member Equitech Growth Commission in response to findings that the state needed to be more competitive as an innovation economy and needed to promote more diversity and inclusion in its technology ecosystem. The new fund aims to support emerging tech industries by supporting infrastructure and inclusive workforce development initiatives.
According to a December news release from TEDCO, the Equitech Growth Fund “is projected to support training for more than 3,200 students studying information technology (IT), potentially place 2,500 of these students into jobs annually, and support the creation of more than 160 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs in Maryland during the first year alone.”
The fund awarded $7 million to 14 projects in December, and the CWA program was chief among them with $935,680. That brought the total amount awarded to the program up to $6.4 million to date.
“Maryland continues to lead the nation in the use of cyber ranges at community colleges for workforce development and career advancement for underserved citizens,” Michael Spector, president of BCR Cyber, said in a public statement. “The Cyber Workforce Accelerator is a model that can be replicated in every state in the U.S.”
