UMass Donahue Institute

Bay Path University, located in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, reached out to the UMass Donahue Institute’s Economic & Public Policy Research (EPPR) business group to partner in providing research during their three-year long, ambitious project funded by Strada Education Network to help close the technology skills gap in the U.S. workforce.

The project’s specific focus is to increase the number of adult women who are prepared with cybersecurity and related skills and competencies that meet the specific needs of employers across industries and sectors. Bay Path has hired the Institute to help determine current needs for skills and competencies for a digitally fluent workforce across industry sectors where Bay Path has programs, including cybersecurity, so that they can align curriculum and experiential learning opportunities for students to employer needs.

 More specifically, the Institute will:

• identify of a core set of technology-related competencies that are globally recognized by employers across industries and sectors as fundamental to the development of a 21st century digitally fluent workforce and that can serve as a model for other institutions.
• analyze demand by conducting a data analysis to describe aggregate demand for, current supply, and other factors about key occupations and specialties in cybersecurity.
• determine various online educational pathways (degree programs, certificates, stackable credentials, boot camps, etc.) for developing these competencies among current students, including working adults.

This information will help Bay Path re-align and build new online curricula, programs and experiential learning opportunities that enable students and working adults to gain the cyber/IT-related knowledge, skills and experience critical to employer needs.

Read the press release from Bay Path University. The project launch was also covered by The Center for Digitial Education (GovTech.com). 

February 07, 2019