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The Need

The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decisions will ultimately result in over 45,000 new federal and private sector jobs in Maryland. Most of these will involve high-technology. Of these, there is an estimated in-migration of 5,717 military, civilian, and embedded contractor positions to Fort Meade and an estimated 400 to Andrews Air Force Base (AAFB). In addition, over the next 5 years, an estimated 1,500 new positions per year are projected to be created by the National Security Agency, Fort Meade’s primary tenant (Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, 2007). Furthermore, 10,000 new positions are anticipated at Fort Meade through Extended Use Lease and 2,000 in Department of Defense growth over the next 5-7 years (Team, 2002-2007). Less than 12% of the new positions created by the growth at Ft. Meade are military.

RESI Research and Consulting, Towson University’s economic think tank, conducted a study for Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development’s report (MDBED, 2007) to the U.S. Department of Labor on the effects of BRAC relocations in Maryland. It is their analysis that provides much of the data that is being used to generate policies for accommodating the people who will be filling these positions.  According to RESI, as many as 65% of the jobs will be moving to Maryland without incumbents, therefore, the education/skill requirements of these jobs will be important in the recruiting process (MDBED, 2007).  RESI estimated that over 80% of the new civilian positions at Fort Meade require at least a Bachelor’s degree, most of these being in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.  The specifics of the educational requirements of the new positions at Andrews Air Force Base were not available.

Table 1. Estimate of Educational Attainment for New Civilian Positions at Fort Meade

                Adapted from MDBED, 2007

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), one of three organizations (besides the Defense Media Activity and the Defense Security Service’s adjudication office) relocating at the fort, is a combat support agency which includes 1) the Global DoD network which imagines, designs, builds, provisions, and sustains the Global Information Grid (GIG) and 2) combat support data centers that provide net centric enterprise services, net-enabled command capability, and GIG bandwidth expansion. DISA alone will bring 4097 positions. The agency conducted a survey of its current employees and found that the current level of education at DISA  includes over 20% of positions for individuals with a high school or associate’s degree and another 37.3% at the Bachelor’s degree level (table 2). 

Table 2. Current Level of Education at DISA

                 Adapted from MDBED, 2007

According to the DBED report, DISA expects an increased need for engineering and high skill technology and has identified 11 educational programs that would provide the necessary competence to fill transferred programs.  Included are an Information Security and Assurance Certificate and an Information Security Management Certificate (DISA, 2008). These are new technology fields and fortunately the community colleges and four-year institutions near Fort Meade and Andrews Air Force Base are among a relatively few in the country that are in a position to offer these curricula.

Fort Meade lies partially in Howard County in the Washington-Baltimore corridor while AAFB resides in Prince George's County.  Prince George's Community College (PGCC), in Prince George’s County, is the lead institution in CyberWATCH (Washington Area Technician and Consortium Headquarters, CW), the NSF-funded Regional Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity. CW partners include 15 community colleges, 11 universities, and 17 public/private institutions and organizations from New York to North Carolina and as far south as Louisiana.  Since 2005, CyberWATCH has established model A.A.S. and A.S. degree programs that have been mapped to CNSS (Committee on National Security Systems) 4011 standards.  These programs have been adopted/adapted by member institutions resulting in a 333% increase in degree offerings at CW community colleges. Five of the partner community colleges have received CNSS 4011 certification and more are expected to qualify in 2008 and 2009.  CW’s comprehensive faculty development program provided 39 development activities thru academic year 2007-8 that attracted 304 faculty and offers a Faculty Graduate Program that underwrites tuition for IT faculty desiring graduate courses in Cybersecurity/Information Assurance.  CW runs a Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition for college students as well as a forensic cup competition (CyberWATCH, 2008).  The proposed project includes PGCC and the CyberWATCH Regional Center Consortium which includes members such as Capitol College (CC), and University of Maryland University College (UMUC), both National Center’s of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education in all five CNSS domains.

This partnership will target military and civilian employees and embedded contractors that are relocating to this area as well those already in the area who have an interest or experience in Information Security and Assurance.  The individuals with high school or associates degrees or those with degrees in other areas seeking additional credentials in this area would participate in this program in one or more of the following three ways: 1) enrolling in the Information Security associate or certificate program, 2) enrolling in the Information Security Management certificate program, and/or 3) enrolling in the bachelors programs offered by partner four-year institutions.  Each of these participant avenues is aligned with the three main needs addressed by the project:
Need 1. Increase the number of military personnel, civilians, and embedded contractors with Information Security and Assurance technician training available for BRAC jobs;
 
Need 2. Increase the number of people (military personnel, civilians, and embedded contractors) with Information Security Management technician training; and

Need 3. Encourage students to transition into Bachelor of Science Information Security programs.

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