Germanna and GO Virginia launch first dual enrollment cybersecurity course for high school students in Spotsylvania | Education

Amy Henecke, dean of professional and technical studies and workforce development for Germanna, said cybersecurity jobs are “very difficult to fill.”

“So it’s important to start that pipeline earlier,” she said. “With the dual enrollment program, students can start to earn credentials and apply for college credit.”

Tate is partnering with a Germanna professor to teach this year’s first dual-enrollment course. Students come to Spotsylvania Career and Tech Center from their home high schools every other day for half the day, and they earn credits that will transfer to Germanna or any other Virginia community college.

They can also apply to transfer them to a four-year college.

“Even with this one class that they have, they could graduate [high school] and go into the workforce if that’s what they decided to do,” Henecke said.

Tate, who has been teaching computer systems courses for 13 years, said about 25 percent of his graduates do go straight into the workforce, anywhere from entry-level Geek Squad tech support jobs to local cybersecurity firms that contract with the Department of Defense.

Another quarter of his graduates go into the military, where he said they almost always take on a tech or cyber-related MOS, while another 25 percent go to two- or four-year colleges.