Off-Campus Programs

Running Start, Career Start, and Puget Sounds Skills Center are off-campus programs in which many TJ students participate.  Each program offers credits toward high school graduation, with some credits counting towards a higher degree or technical certification.  For more information see guidance counselors or the career and college center staff. 

Running Start. Washington State’s Running Start program allows public secondary school students the opportunity to attend community college and earn high school and college/university credit for their work. Eleventh and twelfth grade students participate in Running Start at no cost to them except books, transportation, and certain fees, such as campus parking. FWPS students routinely attend Highline and Green River Community Colleges as part of Running Start.

Career Start is a partnership between the Federal Way School District and Highline Community College.  It is a professional/technical form of Running Start.  Students take college-level classes at Highline that apply to their high school graduation and an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree during their junior and senior year of high school.

To join Career Start students must be a junior in high school and ready for college level classes.  Students must take the COMPASS assessment or an alternative assessment to determine reading, writing, and math skills.  College tuition is paid for but students must pay for textbooks and transportation.

Current Career Start programs  are:

  • Administration of Justice
  •  Administrative Management
  • Chemical Dependency Professional
  • Human Services
  • Data Recovey/Forensics Specialist
  • Drafting Design
  • Network Specialist
  • Web/Database Developer
  • Interior Design
  • Paralegal
  • Medical Assistant
  • Personal Fitness Trainer
  • Visual Communications
  • Retail Management
The Puget Sound Skills Center (PSSC), one of 13 skills centers in Washington State, draws students from Federal Way, Tahoma, and Tukwila school districts, as well as Highline. It offers college preparatory and career education in 18 fields from instructors who all have real-world experience in the fields they are teaching. The equipment available in each program is state-of-the-art, and each program has an advisory board made up of industry leaders to ensure programs stay on the cutting edge. The two-and-a-half-hour daily program accepts high school juniors and seniors. Students spend half their school day at their neighborhood school, doing core curriculum, and spend the other half at PSSC immersed in a field of their choosing.
PSSC has a diverse array of programs:

  • Business, Marketing & Management (Culinary Arts, Fashion Design and Marketing)

  • Human Services (Criminal Justice Training, Fire & Emergency Services, Translation & Interpretation​)

  • Information Technology (Digital Media Arts, DigiPen Animation Academy, DigiPen Video Game Programming, Aerospace Manufacturing/Engineering)

  • Science & Health (Dental Assisting, Marine Science & Technology, Nursing Assistant Certified)

  • Trades & Industry (Auto Body Technology, Automotive Technology, Construction Technology, Welding Careers​)

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