SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio high school already focused on coding, cyber security, IT, gaming, entrepreneurship, and business is adding a new program to help build a pool of local talent to fill high-demand tech jobs.
On Tuesday morning, CAST Tech High School announced a partnership with UT San Antonio for a program called the Early College Academy.
The partnership with the university will provide transferable college credits towards a student’s degree program from the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, College of Engineering and Integrated Design and the College of Sciences.
“One of the strategic decisions with working with UTSA is their cybersecurity program. It’s one of the top in the nation, and they have a national certification. So we are excited that our students will get to be able to participate and work towards the degree program,” said Melissa Alcala, principal at CAST Tech High School.
Students will also be able to take the first class in their major while attending high school.
The program is designed to build a pipeline for students to get high-paying local jobs.
San Antonio tech leader Graham Weston invested in the new program.
“When our young people have the right skills, they have opportunities open up to them that they never dreamed of,” Weston said.
Weston said this type of program keeps San Antonio competitive in the tech industry.
“Companies like Facebook and Google, they’re moving to Austin. They should be moving to San Antonio. If we have the tech talent, if we have a pipeline of an ongoing production of great young, talented people, they’ll come here too,” Weston said.