SUNY Orange offers free summer cybersecurity course for local students

SUNY Orange Plus is putting 24 seats on the line this summer for Orange County students who want a faster path into cybersecurity, a field that local officials and educators are treating as a real workforce opportunity, not just another class.

The free program will run on the Newburgh campus from July 6 through July 30, meeting in person Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for four weeks. It is open to students ages 16 to 24, a range that captures high schoolers, recent graduates and young adults deciding whether to move straight into training, certification or college.

The college is using the IBM SkillsBuild curriculum to teach cybersecurity fundamentals, risk and compliance, system vulnerabilities, system and network security, cloud security, incident response and forensics. Students who complete the course will earn the IBM SkillsBuild Cybersecurity Certificate, a credential that can help them continue into additional training or compete for entry-level opportunities.

The scale matters. With only two dozen spots, the course is small enough to stay hands-on, but large enough to test whether Orange County can keep younger residents moving into a high-demand technology field without pushing them out of the county. For families weighing the cost of specialized training, the free tuition removes one of the biggest barriers to entry.

SUNY Orange has been building a broader cyber pipeline around that idea. Its Cyber Security A.A.S. program at the Middletown campus prepares students for entry-level careers and includes computer forensics, network forensics, information security, network perimeter security and cyber crime investigation. The college says the program uses hands-on instruction and a state-of-the-art cyber security laboratory, giving students exposure to the same kinds of scenarios they would face in the field.

The county has also signaled that cyber jobs are part of its economic strategy. Orange County’s first-ever Cybersecurity Scholarship was funded through proceeds from the Hudson Valley Regional Cybersecurity Summit, which drew more than 360 attendees from 26 counties and brought in experts from the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, New York State Homeland Security, the U.S. Military Academy, Amazon Web Services, Google and IBM. That kind of turnout points to a regional labor market that is serious about cybersecurity talent.

SUNY Orange Plus itself was rebranded from the college’s Continuing and Professional Education division in 2024 as a more flexible workforce-training arm. The new summer course fits that mission closely, especially alongside the Con Edison Foundation’s 2025 commitment of $1.24 million to ten organizations, including programs tied to clean energy and technology careers in the Orange and Rockland service area. With cybersecurity already featured during SUNY’s Reconnect tour stop at SUNY Orange, the county now has another entry point for young workers who want a credential with direct labor-market value.