Our Mission

Our Mission is to inspire Arizona High School students to pursue careers in cybersecurity and give them the tools they need to succeed in the evolving digital world.
Learn more

The opportunity

The Covid-19 pandemic and changes in the workforce have resulted in high demand industries needing workers with digital experience.

Most IT job postings are outside of the tech industry. In fact, in 2018, 88% of job offerings that had been posted were not in the tech industry and many even went unfilled. These companies are looking for people with digital know how and expertise, that way they can optimize their business for the modern age and reach larger audiences.

Learn More
IT Hiring In Non-Tech Industries
Industry Sector
Share of All IT Jobs in Non-Tech Industries
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
24%
Finance and Insurance
14%
Manufacturing
14%
Health care and Social Assistance
9%
Educational Services
7%
Administrative and Support
6%
Public Administration
5%
Retail Trade
5%
Information
4%
Accommodation and Food
‍
3%

The Challenge

Making Cyber Security a more diverse field to interest the youth, along with people of any race or ethnic background.
To achieve this, we must bridge the gaps by providing support, resources and opportunities to engage anyone interested in Cyber Security. Providing them with the knowledge needed to pursue their career path and helping them connect the dots will get them ready for the workforce.
Learn more
CS Professionals -Demographic Profile
4,000,000 CS Professionals

Bright Spots and Inspirtation

helping students get rid of career related confusion by providing support to navigate the system and close the gaps
Digital Opportunities
Getting Experience
Clearing the confusion

Low Code No Code

Is a phrase that is being used in the tech industry to describe applications that let you develop software with little to no code. This makes it so anyone can use a simple drag and drop solution to build what they need.

Visual Analytics
Machine Learning
Web Development
Social Media
Task Automation

These skills are in high demand for businesses across the United States and all which can land you a job that can make you six figure salary's. These jobs are also flexible, allowing you to work from home and even be a Freelancer. These jobs give you the freedom to work without a college degree and this software is very entry level so it is easy to pick up and master.
STATS and Graphs
Survey on small businesses in Santa Cruz county regarding barriers to growing their business.
Access To Capital
39(59.1%)
Access To Talent
31(47%)
Digital Retail issues (online sales, website)
33(50%)
Digital POS or digital systems integration
16(24.2%)
Operational Support
18(27.3%)
This is a huge opportunity for anyone in Santa Cruz county as it allows for anyone with this experience to speak to these business owner's and solve their issues. For example, you could go over to these businesses with website building experience and try selling them a website to make some money
Best Practices to increase interest in Tech related job's.
Integrating Career-connected pathways; provides work-based-learning experiences from Pre-k through college.
Integrating blended courses; which is a combination of in-person coaching with asynchronous course content.
Integrating Dual Enrollment; allows students to take college level classes at the high school level.

EIR Career Connected Pathways – Peer Mentorship Pilot Results

Cyber Consultancy Session 1 & Session 2 : Consisted of mentor pods who had 1-2 mentors and 4-6 students. They worked collaboratively on a cybersecurity awareness consultancy for local small businesses.

Your Future, Your Choice Session 3 and 4: Consisted of the same sized mentor pods and they worked to explore visions for their futures and establish goals, action plans and resources to help them succeed.
When the student's were surveyed about the experience, most of them agreed that it had benefitted them, and sparked their interest in Computer Literacy and IT Careers.

Which would be a good incentive to learn a digital skill?

Out of 148 responses from a survey targeted at the youth
These results are important as they show how you can motivate the youth to pursue these high demand skills needed for Digital Jobs.
Currently Santa Cruz County is incentivizing local businesses to take student intern teams. Student interns receive a small stipend to work on a digital internship with local businesses. The businesses don’t pay, it is through a seed grant. To make the model sustainable the County’s ARPA funds will offer forgivable loans and one term of forgiveness is bringing on digital internship the future.
Learn More
about velocity

We want to inspire Arizona High School students to pursue careers in cybersecurity and give them the tools they need to succeed in the evolving digital world.

useful links
AZ Cyber Initiative Home pageThe ChallengeThe OpportunityBright Spots and Inspiration
social
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Developed By:
Jonathan Bejarano
Text Me at 520-425-9465