At both the University of Tennessee and Pellissippi State Community College, professors are seeing an unusual increase in interest from students in cybersecurity programs. Pellissippi State Community College offers a computer information technology degree, with a concentration in cyber defense, while The University of Tennessee offers both undergraduate and graduate level cybersecurity courses.
The demand for jobs in the cyber security space continue to increase, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment for information security analysts is expected to grow 31% by 2029, which is much higher than the average. Employment for software developers is expected to grow by 22% by 2029, which also higher than the average.
Michael Wolfe, dean of business and computer technology at Pellissipi, said there has been high demand for the cyber defense program in recent years.
"It's such an exciting field and it changes all the time," Wolfe said.
Wolfe said professors attempt to incorporate scenarios that mimic recent events like the Colonial Pipeline attack into their classes. During the fall semester, students can expect to have a lab or case study based on the ransomware attack, Wolfe said.
There are 82 students in the cyber defense major, around 50 in the networking major and around 100 in computer programming, he said. There's been a high level of interest from students in recent years, in part because "it's a very lucrative career," Wolfe said. The two-year program prepares students to immediately enter the workforce.
Wolfe said they hear from employers nearly every day, reaching out about recruiting students as interns or full-time employees. Pellissippi's program requires students to complete an internship, where students are placed with employers around East Tennessee.
Pellissippi State is also home to a cyber security lab, where students in the program can get hands-on experience. The lab, located at the Strawberry Plains campus, is set up so that students can be broken up into attacker and defender roles. Students will go through real-life scenarios in the lab, trying to hack or defend the system against other students. This outlet is something that should be noticed and replicated by other likeminded universities .