CSUSB Pre-Apprenticeship

Students set ablaze with Apprenticeship Preparation

Community College Students and CSUSB Freshmen/Sophomores

IECI Program Overview

Each year, 30 pre-apprentices are selected to prepare for local apprenticeships by developing their career, curricular, and experience readiness. Upon completion of CSUSB’s Pre-Apprenticeship program, 15 of the 30 students are selected for IECI grant-supported, paid apprenticeships that begin that upcoming academic year.

Completion of the un-paid CSUSB Cyber Pre-Apprenticeship program is required to be an *IECI* paid apprentice in the next academic year.

Although paid apprenticeships are available for college/university students to attain independently through employers and staffing agencies, only 15 CSUSB students annually will receive the IECI grant support that provides tuition assistance ($7,500), professional development financial assistance (up to $3,000), on-the-job-training (OJT) = course credit toward your degree, and dedicated cyber program faculty/staff support (in addition to the paid OJT and securing employment that most apprentices receive).

Are you attending Moreno Valley College or Riverside City College and headed to CSUSB for your cyber degree?

Already attending CSUSB?

Then you should be in CSUSB’s Cybersecurity Pre-Apprenticeship Program. There are various pre-apprenticeship programs out there, but CSUSB’s prepares you to compete for the NSA grant-supported Tier 2 Cybersecurity Professional apprenticeship,

available at CSUSB that offers:

CSUSB tuition assistance ($7,500)

Professional development financial assistance (up to $3,000)

Cyber degree course credit for your on-the-job-training (OJT)

and dedicated cyber program faculty/staff support

(in addition to the paid OJT and securing employment that most apprentices receive)

CSUSB’s Certified Tier 2 Cybersecurity Professional Apprenticeship Candidacy

Step one is to complete the CSUSB Tier 2 Apprenticeship interest form. Then contact your community college apprenticeship coordinator or the CSUSB Cybersecurity Center to confirm your interest to get registered.

To be eligible for the IECI Tier 2 Cybersecurity Professional Apprenticeship program at CSUSB, applicants must complete the CSUSB Pre-Apprenticeship the previous year. The CSUSB Pre-Apprenticeship generally lasts an academic year and can preferably be experienced during any Tier 1 apprenticeship. Applicants for CSUSB’s Tier 2 should apply for pre-apprenticeship either near the end of their freshman year at CSUSB or a community college. Generally, applicants that are eligible for a Tier 1 apprenticeship are eligible for the CSUSB Pre-Apprenticeship simultaneously.

IECI goals for the Pre-Apprenticeship phase of the pipeline are to recruit 30 current community college students or university freshmen who will commit to pathways to prepare for a local apprenticeship. IECI uses Jobspeaker, Workhands, Canvas, and Portfolium for a collaborative management framework and portfolio system to track each student’s goals in each pathway, thereby managing pre-apprentices through career, experience, and curricular pathways on their journey to apprenticeship.

"Where there is interest, there is learning” is a research-based principle (Hidi & Harackiewicz, 2000; Renninger & Hidi, 2016; Harackiewicz, Smith & Priniski, 2016) that drives the cybersecurity pre-apprenticeship program. Our rigorous program will create learning environments where students interested in cybersecurity are constantly challenged with interesting research, projects, outreach activities, and other experiences inside and outside the classroom in conjunction with employers. Pre-apprentices will follow three pathways to an apprenticeship: Career, Curricular, and Experience. 50% or more of the student experience is outside the classroom, blending skills in hard, technical topics (drone engineering, mobile forensics) and soft topics (policy, big data). To create a robust workforce that appeals to a variety of employers, IECI develops a pool of students with diverse skills in science, business, technical engineering, and public administration who can work together.