Based on a just-launched initiative, it’s clear a leading association for computer science educators listens to its members.

The Computer Science Teachers Association, a group focused on middle school and high school educators, recently announced a plan to boost its cybersecurity education efforts. The plan came about after CSTA collaborated with the National Security Agency on a cybersecurity program for students.

The initiative taught the Association for Computing Machinery-owned group one thing: Teachers want help with this stuff, too.

“One of the pieces of feedback we got from the teachers is they thought they could do better at it if they actually understood cybersecurity a little better,” CSTA Executive Director Mark Nelson told TechRepublic this week.

That led to the new 8-hour certification course, called the Cyber Teacher Certificate, which is intended to better equip teachers to help students take on a field that has a definite need for new talent.

The curriculum, which was developed with CompTIA and is being distributed through the online education firm LifeJourney, covers topics such as compliance, best practices, encryption, authentication, and governance. TechRepublic notes that CSTA is already eyeing plans to expand its education offerings with LifeJourney by offering lessons on diversity to encourage growth in the industry.

“Cybersecurity job growth is creating career opportunities for students at an unprecedented rate. Educators are actively trying to bring cyber into their classrooms so their students understand their opportunities. Computer science teachers now have a simple and powerful way to bring this capability into their classroom,” LifeJouney CEO Rick Geritz said in a news release.

The effort is among similar attempts to boost cybersecurity education from within the federal government, such as the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education.

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