MATTOON, Ill. (WAND) – LIFT is known for helping students who aren’t in a normal high school setting get a head start in their career. Students studying Information Technology get to learn in different courses and hands-on activities.

“Just with the world reliant on technology and how it’s going to continue to progress, having a group of professionals or waves of professionals come into the workforce that are prepared for that is going to be tremendously helpful.” said IT Instructor, Aaron Ramsey.

Students that are still in high school get to utilize different skills that some people probably don’t ever get to see for years after they’ve already been working in the field.

“It’s really hard to get that hands-on experience outside of school so what our program here does is give them an opportunity to get their hands on with actual switches or actual hardware.” said Ramsey.

Students like Michael Smith are trying to learn as much as they can now, to get ahead of any competition in the future.

“I’ve been through a computer maintenance, a programming course, and now I’m doing networking, I’m on my second semester of doing that. So, I’m kind of hitting all the stops in the IT field. That’s what I hope to go into in college.”  said Smith.

For more information on LIFT, click here.