IBM empowers students from underserved communities with breakthrough STEM and workplace skills

P-TECH programme across 28 countries, and free, online Open P-TECH  career readiness platform improve employment prospects

 Already around 1,500 students across 7 countries in Europe and 2 in Middle East and Africa are taking advantage of P-TECH education-to-career pathway 

IBM today announced that P-TECH, a groundbreaking public education model to strengthen education equity and workforce development opportunities in primarily underserved communities, is now in 28 countries and regions around the world, including seven in Europe and two in Middle East and Africa. The latest European country to participate in the P-TECH education and career readiness model are The Netherlands, alongside Mainland China and Japan. 

P-TECH schools combine STEM-intensive classroom studies with experiential career training -- through mentoring, site visits and paid internships -- provided by local businesses. They enable teens to earn both a no-cost secondary school and college diploma within 6 years or less. Graduates can then more easily secure well paying positions in multiple industries.

As a complement to this education model, and to make technology and professional competencies even more accessible to young people around the world, IBM has introduced free-to-access Open P-TECH online curricula. IBM has now added Italian, Polish, Turkish and Korean languages to the Open P-TECH career readiness platform.

Distance learning in the year of pandemic 

The COVID-19 pandemic is leading to an unprecedented shift to online learning and the use of digital technologies. The European Commission has just announced its Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027, focused around developing a high-performing digital education ecosystem and enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation. 95% of respondents consulted by The European Commission consider that the COVID-19 crisis marks a point of no return for how technology is used in education and training. Respondents also say that online learning resources and content need to be more relevant, interactive and easy to use.

In this context initiatives such as IBM’s Open P-TECH, can become a crucial part of countries’ economic reform programmes; Open P-TECH equips 14-20-year old learners with foundational tech skills of the future, and can be a valuable resource for teachers looking to supplement regular classwork. Courses cover in-demand technologies like AI, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, Data Science and Cybersecurity. 

P-TECH in Europe and Middle East and Africa

First  launched  by  IBM  in  2011,  the  P-TECH  model has  been already adopted by more than 240 schools globally,and supported by 200 colleges and more than 600 industry partners, including GLOBALFOUNDRIES, VW, Thomson Reuters, and more. P-TECH launched in Europe at the start of the 2019/2020 academic year and now is rapidly developing in 7 countries already: Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK.  988 students in 28 high schools have embarked on the program with support from IBM and 32 industry partners.  The Netherlands launched P-TECH in two schools in October 2020, while the Czech Republic doubled the number of P-TECH schools and France, Italy and Poland have the potential to do that still in 2020/2021.

P-TECH was launched in Morocco in 2017 and Egypt in 2019, while Open P-TECH is available in the Turkish language. Overall already 5 schools, 3 industry partner businesses and 450 students are participating in the programme in Middle East and Africa. 

The industry partnerships are crucial in the model design by bringing insight into the skills and qualities required for competitive jobs, along with the experiences needed 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 -- skilled, tech positions that don't necessarily require a traditional, four-year college degree such as cybersecurity, IT help desk, or data analysis. 

"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 Marta Martinez, IBM EMEA GM. “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.”

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

For more information, please visit https://newsroom.ibm.com/ibm-corporate-social-responsibility, or https://www.ibm.org/initiatives/p-tech

To learn more about what students in Europe are saying, please read this blog by Marta Martinez, GM IBM EMEA