With over a half a million unfilled jobs in information technology across all sectors of the economy, Northwest Vista College has positioned itself to help fill this need.
According to the White House, IT jobs in fields like cyber security, network administration, coding, project management, UI design and data analytics offer pathways to middle-class careers with average salaries more than one and a half times higher than the average private-sector American job. IT and cyber security jobs are not only for people with advanced degrees.
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Dr. John J. Grillo, NVC program coordinator of Network & Cloud Architecture, said his program's current job placement rate is 90 percent, and many students have been lured away after taking a series of Cisco courses and receiving a certificate.
“What other program or college/university can boast that,” said John. “Take only four (CISCO) courses and get a starting salary between $45,000 to $55,000. That's pretty impressive. As of now, NVC is the only two-year college in south central Texas that has the Network Cloud Architecture AAS.
Through NVC's Network and Cloud Architecture Associates of Applied Science degree, students can earn certifications in Cloud Computing from Rackspace University, Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), Comptia A+, Linux Certified Professional (LCP) Level 2, while also allowing students to have a firm grasp on the Python Programming language, a language used to write scripts for mobile cloud-network environments.
The program emphasizes and demands a “hands-on, instructor-driven” detailed approach to common foundation areas, which has resulted in the college being a lead provider in new talent in the areas of Cloud Computing, Network Administration, and Information Security and Assurance to the San Antonio and surrounding communities.
For example, Rackspace Inc. in Northeast San Antonio relies heavily on the NVC program when in need of new entry-level talent due to job openings, attrition, etc.
Over the past five years, NVC has provided Rackspace with over 80 new entry-level hires, (more than any two-year academic institution combined) in the areas of networking and network security.
In fact, NVC’s program should only get stronger in the coming years since San Antonio boasts the second highest concentration of data centers in the nation. Also in March 2015, in an initiative called “TechHire,” President Obama announced that 21 communities committed to take action to expand access to tech jobs and help support local employer demand. San Antonio was one of those cities that became a part of the initiative.
TechHire emphasizes that the skills needed for these high-paying jobs can be learned in community colleges, in industry-certified training programs and in high-quality online courses.