Connecting with Industry

Advisory Board

Faculty and administrators at colleges and universities are accountable to stakeholders for the relevancy and quality of academic programs. Advisory boards can support program accountability by providing guidance and feedback and serving as partners in research and community collaborations. 

The current Advisory Board is comprised of employers throughout the state of Texas and represent Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in many facets of the represented degree program. Advisory board members for the cybersecurity curriculum consist of experts from the following sectors: telecommunications, banking, healthcare, government, military, education, information technology, and Security Operations Centers (SOCs).

Guidelines for Instructional programs in Workforce Education are provided by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

TSTC Faculty

TSTC faculty are required to have five years working industry experience in their field as a condition of employment.

Skills Engine - Calibrate

Calibrate helps to close skill gaps by ensuring that what is taught in the classroom aligns with marketable skills needed in the workplace. It engages industry experts online to validate skills needed today and stay connected as skills change to ensure relevance tomorrow.

National Security Agency - Center of Academic Excellence (NSA-CAE)

The National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) program is managed by NSA's National Cryptologic School. Federal partners include the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/National Initiative on Cybersecurity Education (NICE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense Office of the Chief Information Officer (DoD-CIO), and U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM).

NICE Framework
NIST Special Publication 800-181 revision 1, the Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework), provides a set of building blocks for describing the tasks, knowledge, and skills that are needed to perform cybersecurity work performed by individuals and teams. Through these building blocks, the NICE Framework enables organizations to develop their workforces to perform cybersecurity work, and it helps learners to explore cybersecurity work and to engage in appropriate learning activities to develop their knowledge and skills. 

Texas Skills Standards Board (TSSB)

The National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET) skill standards specify what a worker needs to know and be able to do on the job, as well as the level of performance required to demonstrate competence in that knowledge and skill. Both work- and worker-oriented information are essential pieces of meaningful skill standards.

The Texas skill standards elements, format, and recognition requirements were designed to facilitate portability of credentials and transferability of individuals’ skills, and to promote the linkage of state and national skill standards efforts.

Workforce Education Course Manual (WECM)

The WECM is a statewide inventory of workforce education courses offered for semester credit hours (SCH) and Continuing Education Units (CEUs). These courses are used by the college to respond rapidly to the needs of business and industry. The WECM offers a means for the college to continually design and update high quality workforce courses by receiving input from business/industry and community college faculty throughout Texas.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) approves all courses cited in the WECM for use by Texas public community and technical colleges. Students who earn semester credit hours or CEUs by successfully completing requirements for the course(s) will be able to transfer the credits or CEUs to another Texas public community or technical college offering the same course(s).

Occupational Information Network (O*NET)

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is developed under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA) through a grant to the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

Central to the project is the O*NET database, containing hundreds of standardized and occupation-specific descriptors on almost 1,000 occupations covering the entire U.S. economy. The database, which is available to the public at no cost, is continually updated from input by a broad range of workers in each occupation.