Palo Alto Networks Training and Student Engagement Opportunities

[jdean77]

Howdy Palo Alto Community!

In addition to my employee role in the IT department, I volunteer as a staff advisor for the Islander Cyber Society (our campus cybersecurity club) at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi.

Previously, we participated in the Palo Alto Networks Cybersecurity Academy and explored offerings such as Cybersecurity Fundamentals, Network Security Fundamentals, and related training paths. While we appreciate the availability of these resources, we have seen limited student engagement over the past couple of years.

More recently, we noticed that learn.paloaltonetworks.com offers a variety of free courses and training resources that appear to be more immediately accessible to students. We are currently trying to determine the best overall approach for engaging university students with Palo Alto Networks training, certification pathways, and products.

What do you all recommend as the most effective path for a university cybersecurity organization like ours? Should we primarily direct students toward the public learning platform, or are there additional academic resources, labs, simulations, product demonstrations, or partnership opportunities that would provide a more hands-on experience?

I earned the PAN Certified Cybersecurity Practitioner cert studying only from the public materials as it didn't really make sense for me to complete my own courses in Academy. I can direct our students to do the same, but I think they would be more excited about Palo Alto certs if they were able to interface with tools first hand.

Our goal is to help students build practical cybersecurity skills while also exposing them to real-world security platforms and workflows used in industry. We would appreciate any guidance or recommendations you may have on how best to move forward.

Thank you for your time and support.