WHAT IS THE SPARKLAB?

The SparkLab High-Tech Learning Accelerator offers a new way to learn while earning credit toward graduation. You define your path: choose from more than 50 learning experiences, move at your own pace, and learn with students, teachers, and tech industry professionals from across North Carolina. 

The Accelerator lets you dive into high-tech fields, including eSports, Game Development, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, User Experience Design, Software Development, and more. You can choose to survey several areas or go deeper in the topics that interest you most. There is no prerequisite. You can choose learning experiences that are online, in-person, or a blend of the two. 

This is a great first experience for students who have never explored careers in high-tech fields, and it’s also an excellent starting point for students who’d like to accelerate toward earning an industry-recognized credential.  

To earn credit, learners will first complete the SparkNC Orientation Unit, then choose and complete six high-tech Units, and culminate with a final capstone project. Learners have the opportunity to complete SparkNC Units in three different ways: live, on-demand, and experiential.

Live Units are designed and led by SparkLab Leaders and industry experts in a live format in-person or virtually in SparkLabs. 

On-Demand Units on the SparkNC platform are available for learners to choose and complete at any time that works for them.

Experiential Units are live events and programs such as student conferences and summits, hack-a-thons, teamships, job shadowing and hands-on learning opportunities.