Many business leaders worry that students aren’t coming out of schools with the skills they need to thrive in a fast-changing workplace. Some are tackling the problem in a very direct way [1].
Take, for example, IBM. The company announced that it is working with the city of Chicago to create five new schools [2] that will serve grades 9 through 14. (In other words, they will confer high school diplomas and Associate’s degrees). Graduates will be “first in line” for IT jobs at the schools’ corporate partners.
Creating new schools is not for the faint of heart—It’s tough, risky work. Yet IBM got a running start in this business when it joined with the New York City Department of Education and two city colleges to open the P-Tech High School [3] in Brooklyn. (P-Tech is short for Pathways in Technology Early College High School, and it, too, serves grades 9-14.) In its first year, IBM reports, P-Tech has raised reading scores for the one-third of students who came to the school well below grade level. What’s more, the school boasts nearly 100 percent attendance—higher than in any other New York City high school.
IBM’s experience at P-Tech has helped it create something like a blueprint for the new Chicago schools: the STEM Pathways to College and Careers School Guide [4]. IBM’s Chicago team [5] has added to that knowledge base with a Roadmap for Career and Technical Education.
IBM isn’t merely creating schools. It’s blazing a trail for other companies that want to start building their own pipelines of talent.
IBM is a member of Change the Equation.