U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb has co-sponsored legislation that calls for expanded cyber training for Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps students.
Lamb, D-17, Mount Lebanon, has joined on the JROTC Cyber Training Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Texas. The legislation directs the Secretary of Defense to establish a program to prepare JROTC students for careers in computer science and cybersecurity.
“Pittsburgh has long sent more than our fair share of young people to defend this country, and our universities are already building the cyber-security workforce of the future,” Lamb said in a joint statement, “but the training can start earlier, and there is no better group of young people to help us get there than the students who choose JROTC.”
Lamb’s statement said that the bill would direct cyber training be incorporated into the existing JROTC curriculum, which includes leadership, civics, U.S. history, geography and global awareness.
About 500,000 cadets annually take JROTC programs, which reach a higher number of women, minorities and low-income students, according to Lamb’s statement. Also, it said 30 percent of JROTC cadets join the military after high school or college with others going into civilian roles with the Defense Department or military-related private industries.
“JROTC students make a commitment to serve their communities at an early age, and they learn the discipline and habits to be future leaders,” said Lamb, a Marine Corps veteran. “We must provide them with the technical skills to lead in a changing world, both on and off the battlefield, and that’s what our bill will do.”
Fletcher said that the cyber training skills “will not only help our armed forces, but diversify the field of future military and civilian personnel who can leverage their skills even beyond our nation’s frontlines.”
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© 2019 the Beaver County Times (Beaver, Pa.)
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