In recent years, IBM has found that too few college graduates have the requisite skills to succeed in its 21st century workplace. To fix the problem, the company simply founded its own school.
Called P-TECH, the innovative six-year program is “helping close the gap between young people’s ambitions for college and careers and the specific skills needed by employers in high-growth industries,” according to P-TECH’s website.
Through P-TECH, students earn a high school diploma, an industry-recognized associates degree, and benefit from relevant work experience in a science, technology, mathematics, or engineering-related field.
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P-TECH schools are public, open enrollment schools that largely serve underrepresented youth from low-income families. The unique program allows students to gain two degrees, relevant work experience, and promising links to emerging industry careers free of charge. Employers partnering with IBM ensure that P-TECH’s graduates are “first in line” for jobs.
Started in 2011, the program has expanded from one school in New York to more than 80 globally. More than 300 small and large businesses partner with P-TECH schools to serve students.
This year, P-TECH will graduate its first class of 100 students in New York and Chicago, with more than half of students actually completing the six-year program early.
Interestingly, the on-time graduation rate for the first P-TECH cohort in Brooklyn is estimated to have been four times greater than the national on-time average for community college students across the country.
According to its founders, P-TECH seeks to re-invent the traditional high school, bringing change to a system that has seen little structural developments in the last 100 years.
