Curriculum structure and course content
Fortinet's Training Institute is launching the Technical High School Cybersecurity Curriculum, a no-cost, two-course pathway for U.S. high schools delivered through the company's Security Awareness and Training Service. The program is organized around two year-long courses, Cybersecurity 1: Foundations and Cybersecurity 2: Fundamentals, each designed to run about 180 days or 145 hours. The courses cover networking, cryptography, endpoint and application security, risk management, and cyber defense, with the second year building toward advanced technical skills and serving as a bridge to industry-standard certifications.
Access model and instructor support
The curriculum is offered at no cost and is structured as a ready-to-implement package that includes modular lesson plans, activities, and instructor materials, allowing districts to launch programs without seeking additional funding or navigating separate approval cycles. Fortinet framed the release as a way for Career and Technical Education leaders, district technology staff, and teachers to expand cybersecurity programming without straining budgets or instructional bandwidth, and noted that teachers can use selected lessons to supplement other courses or teach the pathway from start to finish.
Workforce rationale and district adoption
Fortinet positioned the launch as an effort to address the cybersecurity skills gap by reaching students before they enter the workforce and giving them foundational technical skills and an early view of cybersecurity careers. Chicago Public Schools is exploring an early pilot to strengthen its cybersecurity pathway using the new curriculum, according to Fortinet's announcement. Melonia da Gama, Director of Training and Learning Programs at the Fortinet Training Institute, said the program is designed to make cybersecurity education accessible to every school and every student regardless of existing resources.
Delivery channel and corporate context
The curriculum is distributed through Fortinet's existing Security Awareness and Training Service, extending a platform the company already uses for security education. Fortinet markets itself as a global cybersecurity company driving the convergence of networking and security, with a product portfolio the company describes as comprising more than 50 enterprise-grade products and a customer base it says exceeds one million. The release was issued from Sunnyvale, California, and Fortinet trades on NASDAQ under the ticker FTNT.
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