Workforce Development Isn’t Just Education, It’s an Economic Multiplier
Fixing the Market Failure in Cyber Talent
By Cece Kintner, Director, Marketing and Sales Operations
State agencies are fighting the same two battles: too many cybersecurity threats and not enough analysts they can afford or keep. States are losing trained analysts to private industry at 2–3x the salary rate. Most agencies reach for the same quick fixes — another tool, another pilot, another grant cycle. But few realize that the shortage itself is the result of a market failure, and that workforce development (WFD) programs are one of the smartest, most economically defensible investments a university or state agency can make.
TekStream’s Whole-of-State Workforce Development model, operating in partnership with institutions like LSU and NJIT, shows that cyber education isn’t just about training students. It’s correcting a structural imbalance in how talent is produced and funded.
What Is Workforce Development?
In most markets, supply and demand balance out naturally. Schools train students, employers hire them, and compensation reflects value. But cybersecurity doesn’t behave like a normal market. In fact, the cybersecurity workforce market is broken.
When a university launches a student-run security operations center (SOC), or cybersecurity operations program, the benefits ripple far beyond the institution:
- Students gain practical experience and higher paying career opportunities.
- Employers gain access to a deeper, more local pool of trained analysts.
- State and local governments benefit from increased tax revenues, reduced cyber risk and stronger digital resilience.
Yet none of those secondary beneficiaries are paying into the system. The result? Underproduction: fewer programs than society actually needs. The measurable gap between what’s produced and what’s possible is known as deadweight loss. Because the state and regional agencies aren’t writing a check, the universities can’t scale. That’s the funding gap we need grant support to close.
Positive Externalities: The Hidden ROI of Cyber Workforce Development
A cyber workforce program doesn’t just fill a pipeline; it multiplies value across the economy. Every graduate who leaves a TekStream-supported SOC program enters the workforce ready to secure critical infrastructure, local government systems and private enterprises. Those analysts earn higher salaries, pay taxes and inject new spending power into their communities. Employers reduce onboarding costs and shorten time-to-value because they’re hiring analysts already fluent in operational technologies and modern security.
NIST is doing it now, with recent awards of more than $3 million going to 13 states in order to strengthen cybersecurity workforce development. More will come.
Why Grants Are the Economic Correction We Need
Grants aren’t handouts. They’re the mechanism by which public agencies correct for this kind of market failure. When universities apply for federal or state cybersecurity grants, adding a workforce development component is the most economically rational thing they can do. Workforce development programs create measurable public returns, such as, higher employment, stronger cyber posture and increased local revenue.
Read an Aspen Institute report introducing workforce development as a proactive national productivity strategy.
Each new campus SOC, internship pipeline or TekStream Workforce Academy cohort helps eliminate deadweight loss by producing the volume of skilled analysts’ society needs. To date, 100% of program graduates have been placed in private sector or government jobs. That’s why programs like the LSU or NJIT student-run SOCs are more than academic innovations; they’re economic ones. LSU was able to launch with a blend of government and institutional funding, while NJIT self-funded its start. If those early pioneers had received proportional subsidies for the external value they generate, there would likely be dozens of similar programs operating today.
A Playbook for Universities and States Seeking Cyber Grants
Universities and their state partners can make a stronger case for funding by framing workforce development as an education initiative and an economic efficiency correction. Here’s how to articulate it in your next grant proposal:
1. Quantify the Economic Impact: Link higher wages for graduates to higher local tax revenues and stronger consumer spending. Include labor statistics or case studies from TekStream SOCs to show tangible ROI.
2. Highlight the Public Good: Show that trained analysts benefit not just the host university, but regional employers, local governments and critical infrastructure sectors, creating shared resilience across the state.
3. Position Workforce Development as a Force Multiplier: If you’re considering a student-run SOC, tie the program to the outcomes that grant reviewers prioritize: improved cyber posture, measurable response times and scalable job creation. Make it clear that every funded student creates downstream benefits far beyond the classroom.
4. Advocate for Cost-Sharing Models: Propose partial subsidies or matching funds between state agencies, local employers and the university. This distributes cost across all beneficiaries and ensures the program can scale.
Your Grant Engine Template
We can’t write the grant for you, but if we could, the outline would include data like this:
- Title: Cyber Workforce Development Program
- Need: State X has 40% unfilled analyst roles
- Economic Justification: Projected $2M in tax revenue gain over 5 years
- Funding Ask: $600K seed + matching $400K.
- KPIs: 25 graduates/year, 90% job placement, salary uplift of 20%.
- Risk Mitigation: employer MOUs, pipeline marketing, evaluation partner.
The Role of SOC Services and Managed MDR in Cyber Workforce Training
Imagine the difference if every state university system had the resources to launch its own student-run SOC. The talent shortage would shrink. The next generation of analysts would stay local. Cyber resilience would rise. And tax revenues would follow suit.
That’s not theory; it’s measurable economics. Workforce development doesn’t teaches cybersecurity and produces it, as an ecosystem of trained professionals, operational SOCs and community resilience. At TekStream, we’re committed to helping universities and public agencies make that case clearly, whether through joint proposals, policy briefs or funding documentation that connects educational outcomes to economic impact.
Because regional governments, employers and taxpayers benefit indirectly from trained analysts, yet do not directly fund training, universities are constrained from scaling to meet actual demand. In practice, a $500K grant can shift supply upward by 30%, restoring more of that value. Funding agencies should view WFD grants not as charity, but as correcting for underinvestment.
Every unfunded workforce program represents lost value: lost analysts, lost innovation and lost resilience. Correcting that imbalance is sound economics and smart public policy.
The Job Placement Risk at Graduation
You may wonder what happens if graduates can’t find work after graduation. With ~400,000 open cybersecurity jobs, placement might not be today’s concern, but it’s certainly a worthwhile question. That’s where the Cybersecurity Career Consulting program at TekStream stands out. This optional program prepares rising seniors as they near graduation, with a combination of interview preparation and resume-building training to help them put their best foot forward. Expert recruitment and placement agents, leaders of TekStream’s recruiting and job placement division, provide 1:1 sessions and classroom coaching. The program culminates in placement opportunities driven by TekStream on behalf of our extensive network of managed services customers and partners. We could have only dreamed of this executive-level job placement assistance when we graduated, right?
Interested in launching or funding a Workforce Development program? TekStream can help universities and agencies articulate the economic impact of cyber education and design proposals that align with federal and state funding priorities. Read about TekStream Workforce Development and contact us if you have any questions.
About this Blog: TekStream Solutions partners with universities and government agencies nationwide to build sustainable cyber talent ecosystems. Through Whole-of-State cybersecurity programs, student-run SOCs, and managed detection and response services, TekStream helps close the cyber skills gap while strengthening enterprise IT security across sectors.
About the Author
As Director, Marketing and Sales Operations at TekStream, Cece is responsible for marketing strategy, sales enablement and the tools and processes used to tell the TekStream story. With 20+ years of experience in marketing, sales and event management, she uses Salesforce, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement and other platforms for lead generation, brand promotion and partner relationship building. She is a creative leader who approaches market challenges and opportunities through analytics, innovation and data-driven insights. A graduate of Central Michigan University, Cece resides in metro-Atlanta with her husband and furbabies.