Skills Development
IBM wins a Brandon Hall Group Gold award
13 October 2023 | Written by: Sally Cripe
Categorized: Events & Conferences | Skills Development
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IBM won a coveted Brandon Hall Group Gold award for excellence in the Best Corporate Outreach to Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Communities category, with its entry titled, “IBM 20+ HBCU Cybersecurity Leadership Centers Initiative” on August 17, 2023. You can view the complete list of winners here https://excellenceawards.brandonhall.com/winners/.
The 2023 Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards™ recognizes best practices for initiatives in Learning and Development, Talent Management, Leadership Development, Talent Acquisition, Human Resources, Sales Performance, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and the Future of Work.
This achievement applauds IBM for partnering with 20 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for the purpose of training and preparing students for cybersecurity jobs in the United States, by collaborating with the HBCUs to create Cybersecurity Leadership Centers on their campuses.
IBM Learning provides course development, publishing, and behind-the-scenes functions for the initiative. HBCU students access free courses that feature general cybersecurity topics as well as IBM product-specific courses. HBCU students can earn IBM Security badges with free badge exams and study guides, then communicate these credentials in the marketplace and on their résumés. In addition to training, IBM and each of the schools collaborate to provide components of the initiative, which include mentors, free software, an assigned IBM Advisor for each HBCU, a student ambassador program, internships, and interviews for jobs at IBM. Many IBM employees and contractors are involved in this ongoing initiative, and they bring varying levels of IBM experience, responsibilities, and credentials to their components.
The initiative aims to incorporate immersive learning. In one such cyber range experience, students simulated the role of ethical hacker. Some participants shared their feedback:
- “Enjoyed the teamwork, we don’t always have that experience in the academic work.”
- “Loved the ability to go into a program and see the actual code.”
- “Learned so much searching for answers.”
- “Knew little coming in but felt I gained a lot of knowledge in short amount of time.”
Winning the Brandon Hall Group gold award illumines one way in which IBM strives for a diverse workplace through investing in underrepresented populations, including students at HBCUs. The award helps to publicize the pledge from IBM to train 150,000 people in cybersecurity over 3 years to meet the dire need for cybersecurity professionals. For more information, see The Time To Prioritize Cybersecurity Is Now | LinkedIn.
IBM recognizes the importance of HBCU faculty and students who want to change the world, and IBM is dedicated to continuing the partnership to provide these schools with access and opportunities.
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