Cyber threats are among the gravest national security dangers to the United States – as citizens and those in the private sector and government are increasingly confronted by a range of actors attempting to do harm through identity theft, cyber-enabled economic espionage, politically motivated cyberattacks and other malicious activity. It is also one of the most strategic threats that federal, state and private sector industries face in Hawaii. Operation-critical systems in every sector have a dependency on cyber, which expands capacity and range of capability — but also introduces new and evolving forms of vulnerabilities that threaten our state’s critical and economic infrastructures.

Hawaii is in a very unique position – the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, as well as the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Special Operations Service Commanders are all located here.  Directly related, Oahu is home of the Pacific’s primary signals intelligence center, the National Security Agency Hawaii, and its world-class all-source intelligence center, the Joint Intelligence Operations Center Pacific.

The Mission

The mission of the Education & Workforce Development Committee is to promote a deeper awareness & understanding of cyber threats specific to Hawaii and ensure that we are developing and accelerating educational opportunities from K-12 into higher education & students are job ready upon graduation and successful in securing cybersecurity job in Hawaii.

Promote deeper awareness and understanding via competitions and informational briefings of cyber threats:

  • Cyber exercises
  • Training
  • Workshops
  • Speaking engagements
  • Sharing of current threats

Develop and accelerate educational opportunities – curriculum and educational programs and pathways:

  • K-12 teacher professional development
  • Higher-education faculty development
  • Developing curriculum/courses & articulation pathways
  • Developing early college models
  • Incumbent worker training/certifications

Build workforce development programs to ensure students are job ready and are successful in securing jobs, this includes retraining of incumbent workers, internships, mentorships and apprenticeships:

  • Engage with business, industry, government communities
  • Internships
  • Mentorships
  • Industry Sector Strategy alignment
  • Job fairs
  • Review/revisit industry job descriptions & skill requirements

Education & Workforce Development Committee

The committee meets on the 3rd Monday of every month from 3:00PM to 4:00PM.

For Inquiries, please contact Committee Leads: