HCPS and BRCC sign off on formalizing ‘Career Academy’

WEYERS CAVE, Va. (WHSV) - High school students in Harrisonburg will soon have a new opportunity to get a head start in their careers.

Harrisonburg City Public Schools hosted its ‘Career Academy’ signing day with Blue Ridge Community College on Tuesday morning, creating a new pathway. The program will give students from both Harrisonburg and Rocktown High Schools the chance to enroll and attend classes at BRCC beginning this fall.

The move comes after the HCPS board voted in 2025 to withdraw from governance of the Massanutten Technical Center, after months of disagreement with Rockingham County Public Schools over the future of the divisions’ partnership.

“We wanted to put together a career academy for our students so they can explore all sorts of career opportunities, get some professional skills, and get college credit and college experience while they’re doing it,” HCPS Superintendent Michael Richards said.

Richards said creating a hands-on learning experience is something public education is always shooting for, and partnerships like this will make it even better.

“They tend to learn better, and they tend to keep the knowledge longer, right? And so we try to do that all the time, but this is an ideal opportunity to really dig deep in that,” he said.

The pathway also gives students who may not have considered plans after high school a chance to look into potential future care options.

John Downey, president of BRCC, said the academy will provide students an opportunity to be exposed to careers that are experiencing shortages.

“One pathway that I’m really excited about is agriculture, because in the region, there is a shortage of agriculture education teachers throughout the state and high schools, and so this pathway will give students a head start in taking some agriculture courses that will then be able to get them toward an aggregate agriculture education degree,” he said.

Downey said that for quite some time, the school has provided transfer students with opportunities to get college credit while they’re still in high school. However, they are hoping to have students who are pursuing a career or technical pathway to have the same opportunity for collegiate education or pre-collegiate education.

“Each pathway, there will be an opportunity to either earn college credit toward an associate’s degree to get them a head start on their collegiate career, and for the students, it will be free of charge, and then if they don’t, the other career pathways will be toward an industry-specified certification that is in demand in the community,” he said.

Downey said success to him with this partnership is years from now, seeing students continue to fill in the gaps the community where workers are needed.