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These schools are a nationwide answer to the skills crisis and high unemployment

PTECH Chicago IBM Studios
Chicago's first P-TECH students are graduating early with both their high school diplomas and STEM-oriented college degrees. IBM

By Stanley S. Litow, President Emeritus of the IBM Foundation, P-TECH Co-Founder

We’ve heard some of these numbers before. But they are compelling. The US economy will create 16 million new middle-skill jobs by 2024 — positions requiring postsecondary degrees, though not necessarily a four-year college degree. This trend already is well underway, as 99% of the 11.6 million jobs created between 2008 and 2016 went to workers with postsecondary training. During the same period, nearly seven million jobs requiring only a high school diploma (jobs with stagnant wages) disappeared — most never to return. Meanwhile, the youth unemployment rate — despite increasing high school graduation rates — is at its highest level since the Second World War. This compelling data outlines a skills crisis, one that impacts our nation, but low-income youth disproportionately.

Now for the good news: IBM’s first P-TECH schools in Brooklyn and Chicago will have produced 100 graduates by this summer. And the IBM P-TECH network — begun with the first school in Brooklyn in 2011 — will have expanded to 80 schools across the US and abroad. All of this has happened during the inaugural grade nine to 14 school’s first complete six-year cycle. On top of that, this season’s Brooklyn and Chicago classes (34 and 13 graduates, respectively) will have finished their “six-year” programs on time or ahead of schedule. P-TECH Brooklyn's first cohort is expected to graduate at a rate that’s four times the on-time national average for community colleges.

What’s more, these numbers are likely to improve once we factor in the number of college credits that current P-TECH students have completed — many with high grade-point averages. Brooklyn P-TECH’s college completion numbers are 400 times the national average for students from all socio-economic backgrounds, and even higher compared to other students from low-income families.

PTECH Brooklyn IBM Studios
Dozens of teens from P-TECH Brooklyn are graduating this year with real-world work experience through their paid internships at IBM. IBM

Strong numbers are very important, but the essence of P-TECH is the human experience. P-TECH students from Brooklyn and Chicago are mostly low-income students of color. They have come to P-TECH because of their desire to succeed, not because they have passed a high bar via pre-testing or other types of “cherry picking.” These are ordinary young men and women who — with the encouragement of their teachers and families, and the support provided by the schools’ corporate partners — are breaking down barriers and setting new standards as they help high-growth industries re-imagine their 21st century workforces. 

Among P-TECH’s current and recent graduates are 19-year-old Gabriel Rosa, who hacked the school’s computer system and then — with mentoring and faculty encouragement — channeled his talents into expertise in programming. Rosa now works for IBM in a new collar job designing and writing code. Fellow graduate and new collar IBMer Nkosi Bourne, also 19, completed his high school diploma and “two-year” college degree in just four-and-a-half years. Bourne honed his web development skills during a paid summer internship with a New York City tech startup and now works with IBM Watson and 3D visualization applications to design interactive cognitive tools. 

Both Rosa’s and Bourne’s jobs require the unique combination of technical ability and workplace skills that characterize new collar jobs — high-paying, growth-industry professions that are nothing like the positions that old-style vocational programs used to train young people for. In place of legacy programs for a bygone era, we need more initiatives like P-TECH, along with an updated federal funding program that focuses schools on rigorous and relevant education and training, and demands accountability for results.

In a promising display of bipartisanship, the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce overwhelmingly approved a bill to modernize the Perkins Act, the federal legislation that provides both funding and direction for all career and technical education in America's public schools. Now it’s time for both the full House and Senate to pass this bill in turn so the President can sign it into law. If enacted, this legislation and the $1 billion distributed under the law would provide for some of the core elements of P-TECH on a broader, nationwide scale. Such elements would include a focus on preparation for high-potential careers, more effective linkages between high schools and colleges, and strong business engagement.

In the six short years since P-TECH began, students have moved quickly through the program. Ten early graduates already are working at IBM, and this school year, about half a dozen students sped through their “six-year” program in as little as three-and-a-half years. Two new graduates who completed in three-and-a-half years — Oscar Tendilla and BryAnn Sandy — have been awarded scholarships to Cornell and Georgetown.

Young people have emerged from P-TECH ready for college and career, eager to contribute to their communities, and unburdened by student loan debt. Now is the time for even more deserving young people to have these opportunities.

Learn more about P-TECH.

 This post is sponsor content from IBM and was created by IBM and BI Studios.

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