Guilford County Schools, in partnership with Guilford Technical Community College, will launch a fire cadet program for rising seniors next school year.
GCS Chief Academic Officer Jusmar Maness said the initiative was created to address fire department vacancies in the area.
“So that kind of prompted identifying this need for firefighters, and for creating that pipeline to develop firefighters," Maness said. "Because we know public safety is a major area of attention for our county and really for the country.”
The first cohort will consist of 18 students. They’ll take their regular classes at their high school, and attend GTCC for their fire-related courses at no additional cost.
By the end of the year-long program, they’ll have completed 540 contact hours and earned three course credits. They’ll just need one more 40-hour class after graduating high school to get their firefighter certification.
"How many times do we have five, six-year-olds that say 'I want to be a firefighter'? And then we're giving them the opportunity to hopefully make that dream career pathway come true," Maness said.
The program is open to rising seniors from all 15 comprehensive high schools in the district.
Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.