GAITHERSBURG, MD — During this unusual time in our lives, many of us find we want to improve our knowledge, skills or even prepare for new career opportunities. If you are interested in cybersecurity careers, need to change careers or close technical gaps in your current resume, there are numerous online education providers to choose from. Many online courses are available from your local community college, four-year universities, even the prestigious Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) programs – please review all options.

The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) is a partnership between government, academia, and the private sector focused supporting the country’s ability to address current and future cybersecurity education and workforce challenges through standards and best practices. The following links from NICE’s site are not endorsements, but list free and low-cost online educational content on topics such as information technology and cybersecurity. Some, not all, may contribute towards professional learning objectives or lead to industry certifications and online degrees. Please note that their site will continue to be updated as new information is gathered and edited for clarity and accuracy for your family, school, or business.

Name and Hyperlink to your Materials*	Description**
CompTIA	Free online training for CompTIA IT Fundamentals and other resources.
CLARK Center Plan C	Free cybersecurity curriculum that is primarily video-based or provide online assignments that can be easily integrated into a virtual learning environments.
Culture of Cybersecurity	Free, downloadable kids activities to help your family learn basic cybersecurity concepts and defense strategies.
Cybrary	Free information technology and cybersecurity training portal.
EC-Council	Free resources for the information security community in the form of webinars, blogs, online video training, and much more.
Elastic	Free on-demand Elastic Stack, observability, and security courses.
Federal Virtual Training Environment (FedVTE)	Free online cybersecurity training for federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government employees, federal contractors, and US military veterans.
Fortinet	Free access to the FortiGate Essentials Training Course and Network Security Expert courses 1 and 2.
IBM (hosted by Coursera)	Free (7-day trial) suite of courses on IT Fundamentals for Cybersecurity Specialization.
IBM Security Learning Academy	Free technical training for IBM Security products.
(ISC)2 Webinars and Courses	Free technical webinars and courses to earn Continuing Professional Education (CPEs).
(ISC)2 Utilizing Big Data	Free course for (ISC)2 members (low cost for non-members) that provides an overview of Big Data components, architectures and applications.
NICCS Education and Training Catalog	Database of free and for pay, online and in person courses.
Open P-TECH	Free digital learning on the tech skills of tomorrow.
Pluralsight	Free access to 7,000+ expert-led video courses and more during the month of April.
SANS	Free cybersecurity community resources and programs.
SANS Cyber Aces Online	Free online course that teaches the core concepts needed to assess and protect information security systems.
TestOut’s 2020 K12 Grant	Free TestOut courses for K12 teachers. Application process required.
Udemy	Heavily discounted online courses for various certifications.

*Materials are related to coding, product training, certification preparation or general IT and cybersecurity skills development, and teacher training and curriculum.
**Some of these materials may only be free or low cost (less than $100) for a limited time.

For more information on how to add additional information or to correct an error, please email NICE.
   →  nice.nist@nist.gov.

Source:

NICE Program Office
nist.nice@nist.gov
(301) 975-5048
100 Bureau Dr.
Gaithersburg, MD 20899

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National BDPA and local BDPA Chapters have broadened outreach to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions (HBCU/MSI) to include establishing BDPA chapters with HBCU/MSIs, CAE schools, and community colleges already certified by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in research (CAE-R), cyber defense (CAE-CD), or cyber operations (CAE-CO).

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BDPA-DC/HOPE Project Tech Partnership initiative is to assist HBCU students and graduates with earning CompTIA technical certifications.  In addition to assisting with technical certification HOPE Project will assist HBCU grads with career coaching and access to our employer network. 

The program is open to any HBCU STEM Major or recent HBCU Stem Graduate.  We anticipate awarding 40 scholarships in 2021.  Candidates can select from any one of the three CompTIA certifications, A+, Network+ or Security+ • Apply now and before January 7th, 2022 with your latest resume by visiting: https://www.hopeprojectonline.com/hbcu

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To launch a new BDPA Chapter on campus, email: info@bdpa.org  today and partner with us during #BDPACon22 in Atlanta, GA August 18-20, 2022.  Visit BDPA.org to discover more . . .

Start-Ups. Small Businesses. HBCU/MIs.
Take flight from “Grants-to-Contracts!” The United States Air Force plans to grow its venture investment substantially this year. To that end, Air Force, in partnership with National BDPA is providing step by step technology transfer workshops for start-ups, small businesses, and research institutions during this year’s Air Force STTR HBCU Virtual Collider.