Beginning this fall, Kentridge High School students can study information technology and earn college credits through a partnership with Green River College.

Representatives from the Kent School District and the college signed a memorandum of understanding on June 25 for the information technology pathway program.

“Our premise for career pathways is that it is an articulated agreement starting with kids in the ninth grade and providing them with career readiness and skills through their baccalaureate and beyond,” said Eric Hong, the school district’s executive director of college and career readiness and school improvement officer.

The new program will be implemented over the next two years. Beginning this fall, students can take Introduction to Computer Programming or Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Programming. The introductory course is designed for 10th-graders, while the AP course targets juniors and seniors.

For the 2016-17 school year, students can begin to enroll in CISCO Network Administrator and MS Windows Server Administrator programs to earn college credit and industry certification.

“Hopefully, we will have several of our high school kids not only have the opportunity to get the certification but also earn Green River College credits at the same time,” Hong said.

Kent School Board member Agda Burchard said the opportunity to obtain the certification is an important component of the program.

“I have a co-worker whose husband is big in the IT world and is trying to move to another company but didn’t have the certification and it was a barrier to him moving on to another company and getting hired there,” she said. “So our students having that when they graduate will help them be successful.”

Hong said a partnership with Green River makes sense since the college has IT Systems and IT Networking associate degrees and recently started offering IT Network Administration and Security and IT Software Development bachelor’s degrees.

“As we continue to expand our program the hope is to be sure our kids have a four-year opportunity and with the Green River College model it is going to be a nice place to start a nice feeder pattern from our high schools directly to college,” Hong said.

Students will have opportunities to intern with the school district’s IT department.

Pete Lewis, the Green River College Board of Trustees president, said the pathway will be a great opportunity for students.

“Having a pathway that is not just a course you take for a degree but also a pathway for success for a future life where they can go right in to an industry, is something that is exciting to us,” he said. “That matchup now is going all the way through the school system… from the earliest coming up through the school system and having something that can be transferred and certified they’ve got a pathway for life. That’s where we can really make a difference.”

Kentlake High School offers a medical career pathway program through a partnership with Renton Technical College, which can lead to Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) certification.

Hong said an education pathway through a partnership with Green River is also in the planning stages and expected to be in place this fall.

The district looks at the interests of each high school when deciding what pathway to add at a school, Hong said. He said eventually existing pathways could be expanded to other high schools.

“The goal is to provide opportunities for students to develop both college and career ready skills that’s been the fundamental goal of all these pathways we have developed and want to develop yet to help students to explore options for careers,” he said.