Assessing the Impact of a National Cybersecurity Competition on Students' Career Interests
Michael H. Dunn, Larry D. Merkle · 2018
It is well documented that there is a sizable shortage of workers in cybersecurity and related careers. Exacerbating this problem are severe imbalances with respect to gender and other underrepresented categories, with one recent study finding only 11% of cybersecurity professionals are women. One approach to addressing these shortages is to attempt to increase interest in cybersecurity careers through extracurricular cybersecurity competitions. CyberPatriot is the largest cybersecurity competition for middle and high school students in North America, with over 14,000 young people participating during the 2016-2017 school year. This paper assesses the impact of this competition on participants' interest in cybersecurity careers. Survey data previously collected by the competition organizers is analyzed with rigorous statistical methods. Results show that participants' interest in cybersecurity increased meaningfully in several dimensions relevant to career selection. Further analysis also finds that despite lower initial interest in cybersecurity careers among female participants, this interest increased by an even greater amount than it did for male participants.