Georgia Now Has an Official Playbook for Which Careers Matter Most -- Here Is What IT Students Should Know

For years, Georgia CTE students and their families had to piece together labor market signals from multiple sources to figure out which career pathways offered the best return on investment. That changed in December 2024 when the State Workforce Development Board approved an official High Demand Career List -- a single reference point identifying occupations that meet three criteria simultaneously: strong employer demand, competitive wages, and meaningful skill requirements. Students in the Computer Science and IT pathway already sit in one of the state's most promising intersections of those three factors: cybersecurity analysts in Georgia earn a median of $124,270 with a projected growth rate of 21.6%, while software developers command $128,920 and are growing at 7.6% nationally.

The list emerged from Governor Brian Kemp's broader Top State for Talent initiative, with the Workforce Development Board chaired by Kia Georgia CEO Stuart Countess. Its intended audience extends beyond students -- it will guide decisions about college credential programs, apprenticeship structures, certification investments, and CTE pathway funding at both the state and regional level. The Technical College System of Georgia published the full roster at tcsg.edu/ga-high-demand.

For IT students specifically, the list reinforces what BLS data already shows. Entry-level IT support roles in Georgia pay around $46,660, but the field's real earning power emerges through specialization: network technicians earn $75,380, and the pathway to network engineer ($132,300 median in Georgia) is well-defined through stackable credentials like CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, and Cisco CCNA. Georgia's IT pathway explicitly prepares students for these certifications.

The High Demand Career List also dovetails with changes to the state's CCRPI accountability formula. Starting with the 2025 calculation, schools receive additional credit when students complete pathways aligned to listed careers, creating a direct incentive for districts to invest in programs that match employer needs. The combined effect -- an official career list, accountability rewards, and HOPE Career Grant tuition support at 22 technical colleges -- gives Georgia one of the most coordinated workforce-to-education alignment systems in the Southeast.