Virginia Tech Continuing and Professional Education has formed a partnership with Fullstack Academy to offer live, online bootcamps that will help address the tech industry’s rapid job growth and increasing skills gap.

Targeting early career or experienced professionals, the new part-time, 26-week bootcamps will teach skills that qualify students for high-paying, in-demand coding and cybersecurity jobs in the greater Washington, D.C., metro area and beyond.

“The demand for professional education is becoming increasingly more important as individuals upskill, reskill, or seek workforce training that will lead to an expeditious transition into employment,” said Shelly Jobst, director of Continuing and Professional Education. “We are expanding our noncredit program portfolio to help meet the demands for emerging technical skills in Virginia’s workforce. With emerging and ever-changing technology, the need for continuous learning is higher than ever, and growth of CPE’s program portfolio in the greater Washington, D.C., metro area will result in targeted new program opportunities to serve the tech-talent pipeline.”

With Virginia and Washington, D.C., hosting an abundance of defense agencies and contractors, the region ranks as one of the largest cybersecurity markets in the country, with nearly 115,000 open positions. Coding professionals are in high demand as well, posting more than 50,000 available jobs, according to Indeed and CyberSeek.

Continuing and Professional Education, part of Outreach and International Affairs, works with university faculty, governmental organizations, and corporate thought leaders interested in designing programs that transform individuals, organizations, and communities through innovative learning experiences.

“As part of our land-grant mission, Virginia Tech is committed to advancing Virginia’s economy in a rapidly changing world,” said Susan E. Short, associate vice president for engagement. “This partnership will help meet the commonwealth’s increasing need for a highly skilled workforce in the tech-talent pipeline.”

Washington, D.C. — which already hosts 53 of the world’s 500 fastest-growing companies — and surrounding areas have recently made significant investments in anticipation of Amazon’s need for highly skilled employees as the company builds its second headquarters in Arlington.

The Virginia Tech Cyber Bootcamp will specialize in teaching students how to monitor and secure systems, networks, and applications, as well as deploy offensive and defensive tactics needed to appropriately respond to cyberbreaches. In addition, the Virginia Tech Coding Bootcamp will teach fullstack JavaScript, giving students a foundation in both front- and back-end web development and the crucial programming skills needed for in-demand coding jobs.

Successfully implementing these programs at its own campuses in New York and Chicago as well as with academic institutions across the country, Fullstack Academy has helped individuals secure jobs with top-tier tech companies in the U.S. Among Fullstack graduates, 79 percent surveyed say they’ve been employed in a job requiring the skills learned at bootcamp, with an average salary increase of 49 percent.

"With policymakers embracing technology disruption and defense agencies constantly seeking more cybersecurity talent, the nation’s capital and surrounding markets are a natural fit for our bootcamps,” said Nimit Maru, Fullstack Academy co-founder and co-CEO. “Virginia Tech has continuously taken proactive steps to help the area meet the demand for highly skilled tech professionals. We’re honored to partner with them to support the region’s rapid growth.”

Individuals can complete an interest form to be notified when applications open.

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