Florida State University’s Panama City campus is involved with an initiative that will enable students to access high-demand industry credentials that will give them the skills to qualify for jobs at area employers such as Amazon.
The effort is part of the FSU Panama City ASCENT program, a six-year, $23 million project partially funded by Triumph Gulf Coast, Inc., which aims to help develop a strong, regional workforce in cybersecurity and new technologies. Aiming to expand technology workforce in eight counties impact by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.
The ASCENT projects focus on sparking the interest of K-12 students for careers in engineering, computer science, information technology and cybersecurity. They also concentrate on expanding the undergraduate degree programs at FSU Panama City to include information technology with a specialization in cybersecurity and delivering not-credit customized training courses and testing to meet workforce needs of its community partners.
Students will be able to pursue industry certifications including Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Practitioner Certification and SWS Solutions Architect Associate Certification. “Over the next six years, we will produce more than 3,000 industry certifications in our eight-county area,” said Randy Hanna, FSU Panama City dean, Randy Hanna. FSU will accomplish this in a few ways.
First, FSU will partner with K-12 schools in the area, There will also be a continuing education option for those that are out of school and who want to pick up the technology skills and expertise. In addition, existing students will have the opportunity to embed industry certification into certain programs, including a new IP degree that FSU will offer at its Panama City location and programs the school currently offers.
As part of the program, FSU is partnering with SkillStorm, a tech talent firm that provides technology training and certification to prepare individuals for a career in the technology field.
“We were interested in SkillStorm because of the work it’s doing and its industry partnerships, which include AWS,” Hanna explained. “We have just started with SkillStorm and believe this arrangement will provide thousands of students with certifications that will help them advance their careers.”
This training is especially important in Northwest Florida, Hanna pointed out. “We have a large number of military bases, and the military looks for these certifications. And at the same time, people are retiring from the military and looking for a second career,” Hanna noted. “They don’t need to return to school for a full degree and we can provide them with additional training and certification.”
The total program will involve between 3,000 and 3,500 students over a six-year period. The school will begin its efforts on the K-12 level, then focusing on continuing education before reaching out to its students.