IBM Makes Education & Hiring More Inclusive Worldwide with P-TECH Model Expanding Across 28 Countries

Adoption of P-TECH and multilingual support of free IBM Open P-TECH online curricula strengthens education-to-career pathway for underserved communities globally

IBM announced that P-TECH, a groundbreaking public education model to strengthen education equity and career development opportunities in primarily underserved communities, is now in 28 countries and regions. China is the most recent country to adopt the model, bringing the total of countries so far with P-TECH schools to 28. IBM also added Italian, Korean, Polish, and Turkish languages to the free Open P-TECH online career readiness platform, making technology and professional competencies more accessible to even more young people around the world.

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Especially when socioeconomic disparities are exacerbated by the pandemic, P-TECH provides students with a pathway to college and career by enabling students to graduate with high school diplomas, no-cost college associates degrees aligned to industry needs, and workplace experiences, including paid mentorship and internships. Together, the private and public sectors adjust training and education practices to prioritize pathways and skills that allow people to access today’s most in-demand jobs.

The first P-TECH school opened in Brooklyn, NY, in 2011 with IBM as its industry partner, in collaboration with New York City Public Schools and The City University of New York. There are now more than 240 P-TECH schools in operation, working with nearly 200 community colleges and more than 600 industry partners, including GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Thomson Reuters, Volkswagen and others. The industry partnerships are crucial in the P-TECH model to bring insight into the skills and qualities needed in prospective employees and also to foster those skills and qualities in students.

The P-TECH model helps to strengthen regional economies and underserved populations with a workforce better prepared for “new collar” jobs — highly skilled and fast growing careers in areas like cybersecurity, design, mainframe administration and more that don’t require traditional college degrees.

P-TECH is proving effective.  For example, in the U.S. alone:

• Initial graduates earned associates degrees four times faster than the on-time national community college graduation rate.
• Student populations in IBM P-TECH schools are at least 40% young women and 90% African American or Hispanic. These numbers will help diversify the tech industry and spur innovation with more inclusive economic growth.
• Interim MDRC study results show that the first seven New York City’s P-TECH schools are increasing the number of CTE credits that students earn without sacrificing other academic coursework.

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“P-TECH responds to one of the greatest needs of every country: to bridge the gap between schools and work in ways that promote education equity,” said Grace Suh, IBM Vice President of Education. “These solid public-private partnerships around the globe help create a long-term socioeconomic shift and new vision to build a more inclusive and innovative society.”

“P-TECH generates excitement about career opportunities in advanced manufacturing. The model forges important partnerships that bring industry and education closer together,” said Tara McCaughey, Lead, Education and Workforce Development, GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “GF is proud to be an industry partner to four P-TECHs in the New York State’s Hudson Valley and Greater Capital District regions, providing an important opportunity to talk to students about professional skills and participate in panel discussions about the advanced manufacturing field. The students that complete P-TECH programs are a critical part of the next generation of technicians, future engineers and leaders.”

To bring some of the benefits of P-TECH schools to a broader audience, IBM has also created Open P-TECH, a free digital learning platform which extends important components of the P-TECH workplace learning, professional and technical skills curriculum to learners and teachers. More than 130,000 learners and teachers are making use of the platform in more than 130 countries. It is now available in Chinese, English, French, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish languages.

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