Baltimore, MD – Last Mile Education Fund today announced the Microsoft Cybersecurity Scholarship Program, powered by the Last Mile Education Fund to address talent shortages in the cybersecurity workforce. A $6 million grant plus in-kind resources from Microsoft will provide emergency funding, certification subsidies, and critical career tools for 10,000 financially vulnerable students pursuing cybersecurity career pathways at two-year institutions, such as community colleges and technical schools.
Preventing cyberattacks - which threaten our privacy, our national security, and our pocketbooks - requires a substantial commitment to training cybersecurity experts. Currently there are nearly 500,000 unfilled technology jobs in the US that require cybersecurity skills.
As Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith announced today, Microsoft and Last Mile Education Fund together “will provide Microsoft Cybersecurity Scholarships to 10,000 striving students – including veterans – at community colleges pursuing cybersecurity career pathways and certifications.” This work will help address the critical need to “expand financial aid and additional learning services to help more students pursue cybersecurity degrees and certificates, especially if we want to reach populations not well represented in the cybersecurity field today,” Brad wrote.
“The partnership with Microsoft will grow our reach and impact tenfold.” shared Ruthe Farmer, Founder and CEO of the Last Mile Education Fund. “This investment will enable us to scale quickly and build infrastructure to support one of the largest pools of untapped technical talent - striving community college students - and contribute to national cybersecurity priorities.”
With this investment, Last Mile will invest in 10,000 cybersecurity students at community colleges and two-year institutions and extend the innovative Last Mile model to actively recruit and support veterans. Through the Microsoft Cybersecurity Scholarship Program, Last Mile will facilitate student persistence and success through just-in-time financial assistance to overcome potentially catastrophic financial hurdles and subsidized exam costs for cybersecurity certifications critical to launching into the field. Students will also receive access to mentoring opportunities with Microsoft employees, free LinkedIn Premium to close the networking gap, and access to GitHub Education benefits and resources to build their technical portfolios.
This announcement comes during Cybersecurity Awareness Month, recognizing that all Americans should have the resources they need to be safer and more secure online. Only 3% of US students currently attain a credential in computer and information sciences, and far fewer specialize in cybersecurity. Together, Last Mile Education Fund and Microsoft Corporation are creating a cybersecurity workforce pipeline to address the digital threats our nation faces.
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About Last Mile Education Fund
Last Mile Education Fund closes critical gaps in financial and career support for financially vulnerable college students in the “last mile” to graduation in high-demand STEM fields, addressing both economic mobility and the talent crisis in tech and tech-enabled industries. Unlike traditional scholarships, Last Mile takes a broad investment approach, identifying students committed to technology and engineering fields, providing agile, just-in-time support for challenges they face beyond their control, and incubating them to be the next generation of innovators.