Manassas Offers Free GED Training and Testing for City Citizens

Fewer things have an impact on a person’s lifetime earnings than educational attainment. In our modern society (at least here in America), education is frequently taken to mean an alphabet soup of college degrees. But that isn’t really what education is all about, is it? Certainly, apprenticeships can be considered education as can career and technical training. Many say the best education comes from the “School of Hard Knocks!” Regardless of what level of education a person ultimately achieves, it is generally assumed that the baseline is a High School Degree, right? After all, it’s free to get, and attendance is compulsory.

In Manassas, only 81.3% of the City’s population has a high school degree or higher compared to 89% in Virginia. Accordingly, Manassas residents ranked the quality of education as one of their top priorities in the 2018 Citizen Satisfaction Survey. Consequently, the Manassas 2025: Five Year Strategic Plan aims to increase the percentage of working age adults who have a high school equivalency to at least the regional average by 2030.

To help achieve this, we launched GRADUATE: Do It For You. Do It For Them. Working together with regional workforce development and education partners, Manassas will provide tutoring, mentoring, course materials, online instruction, and test taking expenses FREE to City residents who want to get their GED. Not only are all expenses paid, but graduates will receive $250 worth of gift certificates to participating Manassas restaurants and retailers. A sustained advertising campaign will target residents ages 18–65+ who have not finished High School. If you or someone you know, for whatever reason, never finished High School please visit vcwnorthern.com/graduate for more information and to register.