Germanna Community College launched this fall the first dual enrollment program in Cybersecurity in the state of Virginia with Spotsylvania County Public Schools.

Dual enrollment allows motivated high school or home school students to earn college credit before completing their K-12 educational requirements.

Germanna received $634,938 from GO Virginia Region 6 to train a workforce in information technology (IT), engineering, computer science and cyber related professions. GO Virginia is a state-funded initiative administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) that strengthens and diversifies Virginia’s economy and fosters the creation of higher wage jobs in strategic industries.

A Germanna instructor teaches the course at Spotsylvania Career & Technical Education Center to the students and simultaneously trains the high school teacher to become certified to teach the course the following year. An outcome of Germanna’s GO Virginia grant is to certify 20 teachers to teach cybersecurity throughout the region. In Stafford, Germanna has certified seven teachers to date and is looking forward to bringing dual enrollment courses to Stafford in the near future.

In Fredericksburg, students at James Monroe can take two non-credit pathway classes in cybersecurity. These students will be eligible to be Cisco A+ certified by the end of their course work and if they earn the credential, they can transfer the non-credits to credits at any community college in Virginia. This is part Governor Northam’s G3 Initiative to create a pathway for jobs in the IT and cybersecurity fields.