How to Prepare Students for 21st- Century Tech Careers

The internship — which is being replicated in dozens of schools nationwide — offers students the chance to be IT experts and get real-world experience in ticket-writing, technical writing and general customer care. Most students choose to earn CompTIA A+ certification, thereby enhancing their resume and digital portfolio.

More than 90 percent of teens report going online daily, according to the Pew Research Center — with 24 percent saying they’re connected “almost constantly.” Yet despite the fact teens obviously are comfortable with technology, IT is not an intuitive career path for many of them.

So another cost-effective step teachers can take is educating students — and their parents — about the scope and breadth of tech careers. The fact is jobs in the field of information technology are readily available. Indeed, tech is a growth industry in the United States, with employers recently reporting they had more than 850,000 IT job vacancies.

Moreover, IT jobs are accessible — and without the bachelor’s degree many people automatically assume is necessary.

Research backs this claim up. A groundbreaking study from the Harvard Graduate School of Education called Pathways to Prosperity found that many well-paying jobs didn’t require a four-year degree or even an associate’s degree — and that such degrees weren’t necessarily key to one’s financial and career success.