The College Board is making an effort to bring a real-world application to their courses. This is being launched with the addition of 2 new courses under the AP Career Kickstart model- focusing on Cybersecurity Pilots and Business Principles/Personal Finance.
The organization aims to make high school content more relevant to students by linking it to in-demand skills in the industry.
The key highlight of the courses is that they will engage in project based learning and in the process earn employer-endorsed credentials.
Read on for some key highlights of the AP Business Principles/Personal Finance course
Designed to fulfill the National Standards for Personal Financial Education, this new AP Career Kickstart™ course will offer students the opportunity to earn college credit and recognized credentials.
Key benefits:
- Regardless of the career a student pursues, the required project-based work and assessments ensure students will gain fundamental business knowledge, decision-making skills, and in-depth learning of personal finance standards.
- The college credits that AP students can receive at thousands of universities accelerate college completion and degree attainment.
- Students can earn an employer-endorsed credential, signaling their attainment of knowledge and skills valued by employers.
Coming in the future, here are some key highlights of the AP Career Kickstart Cybersecurity Pilots
In the fall of 2025, AP Career Kickstart™ will launch pilots for hundreds of high schools to test our cybersecurity frameworks for two new courses:
- AP Cyber: Networking
- AP Cyber: Security
Students who earn a qualifying score on a cybersecurity pilot exam will earn a free voucher for additional test prep (CertMaster Network+ or TestOut Security Pro) and the exam for the related CompTIA industry-recognized certification (IRC), an estimated value of up to $350. The alignments of the pilot courses to CompTIA are:
AP Cyber: Networking—CompTIA Network+
AP Cyber: Security—CompTIA Security+
Shortly after completing a pilot exam, students will be informed if they qualify for the free CompTIA test prep and exam voucher.
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