The Lone Star College System is collaborating with Google to address needs for IT support professionals in the workforce.

Google officials announced the tech company would bring the opportunity to earn Information Technology Support Professional certificates to the Cy-Fair, Kingwood, Montgomery, North Harris, Tomball and University Park campuses through its Grow with Google initiative.

Linda Head, associate vice chancellor with LSCS and head of the office of workforce education, said the program is meant to help students become more marketable as they look for careers post-graduation or while attending college.

“Since 1990 or so, we have been committed to adding industry recognized credentials in addition to the Lone Star College certificates and associate degree[s],” she said. “These large companies and multinationals that are hiring our students when they graduate might not all recognize what a community college is or who Lone Star College is.”

With no prior experience, students can learn to become IT support professionals during the eight-month, online-only program, said Peter Schottenfels, communications manager for Google. He said the program—which is being rolled out at more than 25 community colleges in seven states—is meant to strengthen the IT support workforce across the U.S.

Google has also partnered with employers looking to hire IT support professionals, and students who complete the program will be able to share their information directly with those employers, officials said. Some of those employers include Bank of America, Walmart, Sprint, General Electric Co. and Google itself.

“The objective is inspired by our own IT support program,” Schottenfels said. “What we learned within Google was that it was really hard to hire entry level IT staff, because most IT support roles require some sort of higher experience, but at the same time they’re entry level.”

LSCS officials said the program will be available at the Lone Star Corporate College this fall and will be expanded to an associate degree program in the spring 2019 semester.