A jobs crisis? No, it’s a skills crisis
A partnership at a Brooklyn high school is preparing students for tech fields that will drive our economy in the 21st century
BY STANLEY S. LITOW / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2013, 4:23 AM
TONY AVELAR/BLOOMBERG
The IBM Almaden Research Center campus in Silicon Valley.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/jobs-crisis-skills-crisis-article-1.1240688#ixzz2IGtsbfrw
As each month’s unemployment figures show only modest declines, some may As each month’s unemployment figures show only modest declines, some may mistakenly believe that the United States has a “jobs crisis.” But a closer analysis of the data reveals that our fundamental challenge is a lack of skills, not jobs. I made this observation at the recent STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Summit convened by the Daily News. But don’t take my word for it. Look at the January 2013 New York City Real Time Jobs Report, which lists local employers that posted the most new ads in the past 90 days and the number of opportunities available.
The current edition of this report documents the existence of more than 300,000 unfilled jobs in the city.
My company, IBM, ranked sixth on the list with nearly 1,000 unfilled jobs in New York City alone. JPMorgan Chase led the way with more than 2,000 unfilled positions, and AT&T and Citigroup together had more than 2,000 careers in search of qualified personnel. A deeper look at the jobs report numbers indicates that 30% of the vacancies — the largest single category — were in the professional, scientific and technical services sector. This is conclusive proof that a focus on preparing our young people for careers in these fields is the crucial economic challenge of our time.
At the summit, we discussed how to address the city’s — and our nation’s — skills crisis. We agreed that one possible solution could be found in the report of Gov. Cuomo’s education reform commission. Among many other recommendations, that commission called for statewide expansion of the remarkably successful program in operation on one floor of the Paul Robeson High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
The program, Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) — a collaboration between the city Education Department, the City University of New York and IBM — offers a combined high school and community college curriculum that is augmented by instruction and mentoring in workplace skills. The rigorous six-year program leads to both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree in applied computer science. Most important, P-TECH grads will be first in line for jobs at IBM. Recent reports of P-TECH students’ academic success are worth noting. At this juncture, nearly half of the program’s 10th-graders (members of the school’s inaugural class) are already taking and passing college courses, overachieving on the Preliminary SAT and showing additional, quantifiable evidence of progress. This year’s new ninth-graders are doing very well, too.
This new educational model has been replicated in Chicago, where a group of schools modeled on P-TECH opened last fall. They are also excelling. And U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who recently visited P-TECH, has endorsed a blueprint to reform career and technical education across the country based on this model.
What is our lesson from this experience? Plainly, it is that through deeper partnerships between the private sector, higher education and K-12 schools, we can close the gap between education and employment — and reduce joblessness in a lasting way.
By working together, educators and employers can prepare larger and larger numbers of students to take the good jobs that we know are available in our city.
Litow is the president of the IBM International Foundation and IBM’s vice president for corporate citizenship and corporate affairs. Before joining IBM, he served as deputy chancellor of schools for New York City.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/jobs-crisis-skills-crisis-article-1.1240688#ixzz2IGu8pCo2
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