Responding to the talent shortage and increasing demand facing the cybersecurity industry, Udacity said that it is now developing a new nanodegree focused on security.
Launched at the security industry’s RSA Conference, details about the new program (including potential partners) are still sketchy (there’s little available on the information page on the Udacity’s website about the program).
The announcement at RSA actually included an active call for partners for the security program.
To the leaders in this field, we are extending the opportunity to join us. Your organization, together with Udacity, can help shape the future of Cybersecurity training, and nurture the world’s most advanced pipeline of highly-qualified Cybersecurity talent.
Through our partnership, your organization will have early access to this incredible talent pipeline, and the opportunity to hire those experts who have trained on the curriculum you helped to build.
As we consider the technological landscape of the future, we continually seek opportunities to apply the world’s most transformative technologies to the world’s most pressing challenges, and to educate, develop, and nurture the talent that will solve these challenges. We see this kind of opportunity in the field of Cybersecurity, and we look forward to building this program in partnership with the world’s leading Cybersecurity experts.
Your expertise and experience will inform the development of our curriculum. Your subject matter experts will provide vital leadership and deliver valuable knowledge to our students. Through the establishment of scholarships, you will help ensure maximum opportunity for the most deserving and qualified students across the globe.
Announcing the new program on the company’s blog, Udacity cited reports from the Department of Labor indicating that job opportunities for “information security analysts is projected to grow 28 percent from 2016 to 2026.”
Udacity’s security sales pitch is that it has already trained 10,000 artificial intelligence engineers (no word on how many the company has successfully placed in companies), and has thousands of students actively enrolled in its artificial intelligence and data analysis classes.
Through its paid and free classes Udacity claims some 8 million students and 30,000 graduates of the company’s nanodegree programs.
Udacity has made its reputation by offering classes in some of technology’s most sought after fields including autonomous vehicle systems, artificial intelligence and big data.
Founded by Sebastian Thrun, the godfather of the autonomous vehicle industry and the current chief executive of the flying vehicle startup Kittyhawk Corp., Udacity initially launched into the world of massive open online courses. Now the company’s market is more focused on credentialed skill development in conjunction with industry partners like Google, Amazon, IBM, NVIDIA, Mercedez-Benz, and others.
