Gaining an education is important before entering most career fields, but without any hands-on exposure to the job itself, there can be a disconnect when the education component is complete and it’s time to find your place in the work force. While some occupations are able to provide this hands-on aspect within the education environment, others require a practicum for students to get a solid feel for what their career may be like.  

Education assistants have found their practicums invaluable to their future. This is why Ashton College has made a practicum an integrated component of its education assistant courses. Students find the practical, in-person learning ideal for a variety of reasons:  

1. Theory is essential to learning an occupation, but it does little to help you understand how that theory is applied in real-life scenarios. While a practicum can’t possibly expose you to every potential career situation, it can certainly give you a much better feel for how your education is applied in an on-the-job format. You’ll also gain a feeling for how to apply that learning. For example, students with similar challenges may need similar support, but where one may excel with an “I do this with you” approach, another may prefer to have the tools laid out for them and they figure out how to use them to create the support they need as you provide guidance from the background.  
2. Practicums are conducted in organizations filled with those in the career you are pursuing. You are going to meet a wide range of people in your EA program and you will meet more people in your practicum. This exposes you to those who will be and already are in the field. Not only can this provide the support you need from others within your field, it can also help you create connections for the various levels of your career. Having a solid network of professionals in your field is essential for ongoing career growth.  
3. Experience gives you the understanding of your field to help you narrow down your preferences. While you may already know that you want to work children age 6 to 13, you may not know that you tremendously enjoy working with those who have Down Syndrome. Being aware of this alignment to a specific aspect of the education assistant field will give you the opportunity to specialize in both your job choices and career and also in your future education choices. That last point, about future education, takes us to another benefit of a practicum: 
4. Undertaking a practicum allows you to determine if it’s time to head out into the work force, or if you’d really like to add more education to your portfolio of learning. Or perhaps, integrating both by working while taking more education is the best fit for you.  
5. Within a practicum, you will be able to apply your learning and make mistakes before you enter the work force. The organizations who take on practicum students are fully aware that, in most cases, they will have someone working with them who has limited to no hands-on experience. They know that there will need to be guidance and training provided as part of the practicum experience. In essence, a practicum is an adjunct to your formal education and one that gives you essential experience that is directly fitting for the jobs you’ll be considering once you graduate from your education assistant program.  
6. Perhaps one of the most important benefits of a practicum is that they give you regular and direct interaction with students. This ability to relate to students on a personal level can be the fuel that gets an education assistant through a challenging day. You will be able to recall the times when you first met a student with a certain challenge and recall how important it was to get to know them as a person in order to help them grow.  

Having a practicum is an important aspect of many education programs and for future education assistants, it’s definitely a component to look for when selecting a school. Take full advantage of what you learn in your practicum. Volunteer for more opportunities and continue to treat it like the education it is – it can only benefit your career. 

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Every company has budget limitations. Whether it’s thousands or tens of thousands, there is always a limit. The very nature of cybersecurity means that even a mid-sized company could spend millions in order to get everything required to prevent cyber attacks, data breaches, malware, ransomware and other attacks. Millions aren’t the standard option so it’s time to better understand where to prioritize the budget for the best result that minimizes loss. 

 It’s true that a cybersecurity breach can cost up to $4.5 million US for Canadian companies. That’s the average cost of a data breach in the country, but millions don’t need to be the target for expenditures to control that loss. While cyber criminals are growing more and more sophisticated, so too are those who take cybersecurity courses to better understand where to target hacks and breaches.  

Those in IT who add education like CySA+ training courses quickly learn ways to target the spots that cybercriminals look to, to access data, insert malware or otherwise create havoc. IT professionals with this kind of knowledge can help create a more effective cybersecurity budget.  

First, look at the effectiveness of cybersecurity controls  

Take a look at what you currently have in place to stop cybercrime. If your team isn’t as up-to-speed as you would like, encourage additional education like Security+ certification courses or other options that bring awareness to how to better control breaches and security issues. With the right background, IT team members will be able to objectively look at the cybersecurity activities and assess their effectiveness in an ever-changing world.  

Cybersecurity is going to change more rapidly than any other area in IT. This makes designations like A+ certification even more important in team members. By having education behind them, your IT team will be able to look further into the future – not just at today’s issues – to assess what needs to be done to protect a company’s data and digital assets. 

 It will take a significant amount of team effort to determine what is working and what isn’t in the existing organizational controls, but it’s essential to understanding how to improve what exists. This is the first and most important part of a budget – establishing a benchmark. 

Second, vulnerabilities, patches and immediate identification must be a priority 

When it comes to budget, staying on top of the access points is the biggest priority. This can be done through a variety of means and the affordability varies, but the essence comes down to an ongoing scan and identification of vulnerabilities, patches of potential weak spots and immediate identification of any unauthorized access.  

It’s a mix of proactive and reactive, but that’s the world cybersecurity lives in. There needs to be a balance between blocking cyber criminal access and accepting that their continuous technology advancements may allow for entry. Things like a network+ certification course can help IT professionals better understand this fine line between prevention and identification of unauthorized access.  

Both prevention and identification are needed in a cybersecurity budget because even the best IT personnel can’t possibly see everything that’s coming and can’t predict the tools that cyber criminals create. It’s an ever-changing world and budgets must need to reflect an acceptance of this balance.  

Third, employees must be educated about vulnerabilities and their role 

It’s often been reported that employees are the weakest point of cybersecurity. An IT team must make sure that they work together with other departments in order to establish the protocol and best practices that reduce security vulnerabilities organization-wide. 

Education and awareness are absolutely key, especially in an increasingly remote workforce. How to handle corporate logins and app access when using a public network is just one of the many, many educational topics the IT team can share with the organization. It takes IT professionals who are savvy about the potential for employee error that causes access balanced with communication skills to ensure the organization knows their role in the overall picture of cybersecurity. It’s the mix of identification of cause and effect and training that will benefit the organization overall. 

Workshops, newsletters and other engaging forums that train employees are an important element of a cybersecurity expenditure.  

Fourth, and perhaps most important, stay on top of it 

This is absolutely not a set-it-and-forget-it type of activity. Cybersecurity is going to continue to evolve. It’s important that IT teams work through their budget and priorities on a quarterly basis rather than an annual one. Cyber criminals don’t work on an annual cycle – they are constantly building and evolving new tools to hack into data, take command of websites and hold things ransom. This continual diligence is where cybersecurity courses come into play. Individuals in the IT department need constant upgrade to their education to make sure they are on top of the latest advances that protect and organization.  

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