Escambia County Business Journal SPEC I A L R EPORT
CYBER-HELP WANTED UWF’s Dr. Eman El-Sheikh leads effort to fill critical jobs BY STEVE BORNHOFT
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SPRING 2021
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850businessmagazine.com
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he National Security Agency, in October of last year, awarded a $6 million cybersecurity workforce development grant to the University of West Florida, which has been selected to lead a coalition of ı0 colleges and universities in efforts to address a critical workforce shortage. “In the United States, we have more than 500,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs,” Dr. Eman El-Sheikh said in November, “and ı,500 of those openings are here in Northwest Florida. We can’t hope to fill those jobs by focusing solely on academic degree pathways.” UWF’s Center for Cybersecurity, which UWF associate vice president El-Sheikh leads, began blazing other trails years ago when it established its Cybersecurity for All program, whose mission includes up-skilling and re-skilling individuals for cybersecurity jobs. While other schools were more timid, UWF “took an innovative, bold approach to developing workforce programs, and the NSA
