IBM-DepEd partnership forged

MANILA, Philippines — Global tech giant IBM has partnered with the Department of Education (DepEd) to bring their innovative Pathways in Technology Early College High School or P-TECH education model in the Philippines.

The P-TECH project, which will be piloted at Taguig City University, is seen to significantly boost DepEd’s effort to ensure that graduates of the K-12 basic education program are employable by industry.

The Philippines is the second Southeast Asian country, after Singapore, to be a beneficiary of the P-TECH model, and will be the 10th in the world after successful implementations in the United States, Morocco, Australia and Taiwan. 

South Korea, Ireland, Brazil and Colombia have announced that P-TECH would be implemented in their countries this year.

IBM Asia Pacific chairman and chief executive officer Harriet Green said P-TECH was a direct response by IBM to the global skills crisis and is very much in need in the Philippines which is seeing a jobs skills mismatch.

“The whole program is about skills,” Green told The STAR in an interview during the recent launch of the program at the Grand Hyatt Hotel Manila in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

P-TECH was created by IBM in 2011 and was first implemented in public schools in New York, working to create a direct path between high school, college and career by linking the education sector with local companies.

To date, P-TECH has been replicated in more than 110 schools worldwide, and is expected to be in more than 200 schools by the end of this year. More than 550 businesses in technology, health care and advanced manufacturing currently participate in the initiative as industry partners.

In the Philippines, P-TECH will span grades 11 to 12, with students graduating from K-12 with an Associate Degree in Computer Technology. 

Beginning in senior high school, students will benefit from mentorships, worksite visits and project days — all of which will provide early exposure to careers in industries and disciplines that involve a background in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).