June 24th, 2021 by WCBC Radio

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing how face-to-face interactions take place, but summer student work experiences are still needed for career training.

 

That’s why Allegany County Public School’s Center for Career and Technical Education is providing 10 P-TECH students to participate in IBM’s nationwide program that will host 1,000 paid P-TECH interns this summer, with the aim of helping students gain critical professional and technical skills.

 

“The traditional pathways into highly-skilled jobs are changing for the better, becoming more inclusive and accessible to people from all walks of life,” said Obed Louissaint, IBM Senior Vice President, Transformation & Culture. “These U.S. based programs were created to level the playing field, create economic opportunity through skills, and build a technology workforce that resembles the country.”

 

According to the World Economic Forum, greater private-public collaboration on large-scale upskilling and reskilling initiatives could boost global GDP by $6.5 trillion and lead to the creation of 5.3 million net new jobs by 2030. Education and workplace learning experiences like internships will help job seekers keep up with the new demands of labor markets that are continually challenged by technological disruption, demographic change, and the evolving nature of work. These internships will include learning financial skills and life skills like time management that encourage and support all students to visualize a successful career that involves technology.

 

“The ACPS Center for Career and Technical Education is excited for the P-TECH students to have the opportunity to be part of IBM internships. The virtual internships allow our students to build their skills from IBM personnel across the country, giving our students a competitive edge when they enter the workforce," said a representative from ACPS. 

 

The P-TECH program was originally launched in Allegany County Public Schools in the fall of 2017 in partnership with Allegany College of Maryland. The first cohort has completed all of their high school requirements, with two students successfully receiving their Computer Science Associate's Degree from ACM. The remaining students in Cohort 1 will continue at ACM in the fall of 2021. Currently, there are 93 students enrolled in the P-TECH program at ACPS. Students participating in the summer internship include John Blank, Cody Blankenship, Landan Dwire, Devin Greco, Jalen Hite, Ethan Pusey, Cameron Robertson, and Caitlin Rosenberger from Cohort 1, and from Cohort 2, rising seniors, Nathan Warnick and Jacob Wilson.

 

Announced in July 2020, IBM is offering 1,000 paid virtual internships until December 31, 2021 to P-TECH students from 45 schools, spanning the states of Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Texas, and others. This commitment is a 10x incremental increase from recent internship goals and is one way IBM is taking action to advocate for social justice and racial equality. Creating more equitable pathways for underserved people to acquire tech and professional skills by supporting a “skills over degrees” approach has the potential to close economic divides that exist around the world based on race, antiquated class systems, prejudice, and more.