蘑菇tvA, 蘑菇tvS and Ingalls Information Security Collaborate to Grow the Cyber Workforce in Louisiana
October 09, 2023
Building Talent Pipelines with Industry
Ingalls Information Security, a cybersecurity services provider based in Central Louisiana, has partnered with 蘑菇tv Alexandria and 蘑菇tv Shreveport to educate and train homegrown talent and build cybersecurity business in and for the state.
Ingalls, 蘑菇tvA and 蘑菇tvS are now two years into a formalized internship program to strengthen cybersecurity talent pipelines in Louisiana. Cohorts of up to four students at a time can receive course credit while working as tier-one cybersecurity analysts at Ingalls and helping banks, insurance companies, hospitals and other businesses secure their networks and data.
Some students immediately transition from interns to employees. Ingalls almost exclusively hires current and former interns to work as tier-one analysts. One of them is Aiden Thaxton from Pineville, Louisiana, who is working full-time for Ingalls while finishing his bachelor鈥檚 degree at 蘑菇tvA. He will be one of the very first 蘑菇tvA students to graduate with a degree in cybersecurity鈥攁 program added this year, with 10 new cybersecurity courses.
鈥淚鈥檝e worked for Ingalls for over a year now. My studies support the stuff I do at work, and vice versa. It fits perfectly,鈥� Thaxton said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not certified for this job. I haven鈥檛 graduated college. No company would have looked at me if it wasn鈥檛 for the 蘑菇tvA internship program and the experience I gained. It got me to where I needed to be to land a job.鈥�
With support from Louisiana Economic Development, 蘑菇tv Alexandria is building out its Technovation Center and a cyber lab for hands-on training.
鈥淎s a growing company, we weren鈥檛 finding enough people in Louisiana with experience in data breach response. We had a scalability problem we needed to solve. So, we decided to tackle that, and that led us to a partnership with 蘑菇tv.鈥�
Jason Ingalls, CEO of Ingalls Information Security