By WCLO Radio News Staff

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Local high school students can launch their entrepreneurial and business careers from a real, downtown Janesville office space starting this fall.

This fall, the Janesville School District and Forward Janesville are partnering to make office space at 1 Parker Place available for the first time in a professional co-working program called the Janesville Business Hub.

Forward Janesville President Angela Pakes says the Janesville Business Hub will launch this fall with about 30 high school students who have varying interests in business, industry and entrepreneurship.

Pakes said the office space at 1 Parker Place will give students a more realistic-feeling office environment as they work on assignments geared to ready them for careers in business. Prior, the school district has worked with students in a similar program that has operated out of a high school cafeteria.

The students in Janesville Business Hub have access to local business and industry officials who have agreed to work as mentors for the program.

The program is intended to serve more than a hundred and eighty students over the next three years.