October 20, 2020 • 35 mins
Today on Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Joe talk with IBM's Joel Mangan, Executive Director of P-TECH, and recent P-TECH graduates Suyhalia Karim-Doran and Eric Cholula-Martinez about how P-TECH, a groundbreaking public education model, is addressing education and workforce development challenges for underserved students.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today, we're going to be talking about IBM's role in
an educational model known as p Tech, which was established
inn with a mission to empower students with the skills
they need for careers in STEM. We'll be talking with
Joe L. Mangan, executive director of the p Tech Program
at IBM, as well as PTech graduate and hardware developer
(00:23):
Eric Cholula Martinez and p tech graduate and IBM apprentice
Suhlia Karam Doran. If you want to hear previous entries
in this series, you can simply look up the episodes
labeled smart Talks and our feed from earlier this year,
and you can also check out the episodes of smart
Talks on the I Heart Media podcast tech Stuff. And
now let's jump right into our conversation. Joel, let's start
(00:47):
with you. Can you tell us a bit about yourself,
your background and how you wound up working for IBM. Yes,
so um I joined pe Tech just about over a
year ago. I am actually a recent American. I was
born in Africa in the country call Cameroon and uh
and I moved to the US about eight years ago
(01:08):
after you know, doing work and studying in in the
UK and working all over Europe, in Student and Denmark,
mainly in IBMS consulting business. So I joined our CSR
team a couple of years ago and this has been
my most exciting work at IBM doing this work at
p Tech. Now, what led you to get involved specifically
(01:30):
in education? UM? Education has always played a really important
role in my life. I have benefited from a lot
of opportunities that my my ps did not get and
the outcomes in our lives has been is very very
clear to see us as we've all got gotten older. Also,
my mom was an avid believer in education. She stopped
(01:53):
her education at the age of thirteen, and she was
so insistent that we get the best education that we
that we could get and that we took it seriously.
I was really inspirational was that after she had six
children and she was thirty five at the time, she
went back to school and she studied to become a
teacher and she was an elementary school teacher for the
(02:15):
rest of our life. So it's something that has been
a really passionating in our family. So we work a
lot in education, but mainly in access to education, and
this is my first foray really into the systematic part
of education. Well, let's talk about about p tech for
a second then, So, so first of all, can you
just tell us what p tech is, what it stands for,
(02:36):
and then how does it work. PETE stands for Pathways
to Technology Early College, high School and so now you know,
I we just call it pe tech UM. So PETER
was conceived ten years ago to have a different and
innovative way to tackle the skills gap. I think we
(02:57):
can talk about the skills gap in a minute, but
focus really on how p tech works. UM. Pe tech
allows ninth graders in a p tech school to complete
a STEM related Associates degree and the high school diploma
at the same time. So the aim of the program
is that while you're in high school that you complete
(03:18):
UM that your p tech program with a STEM Related
Associates degree as well as your high school diploma. Obviously,
so instead of having a nine to twelve model, so
the K to twelve model that we're all familiar with
is a kid to fourteen, which means that's an extra
two years that a student may use to be able
(03:39):
to complete both the diploma and and the the associate's
degree in a STEM field. What is unique about petech
is the role that industry plays. So there are three
parties to every p tech school. There's the high school,
there is the community college which offers the associates degree,
and then there's the business. What the business does in
(03:59):
p tech, which which is really unique in this program
in education programs, is that it aligns the degree pathway
to what is a growing job area, job area that
is in high demand for for the future of work.
And then the business provides mentoring for the students, which
is to help them build a series of eleven critical
(04:20):
skills that are really important for for for work these days.
And then the last thing we do is to provide
paid internships to provide real experience at work and to
expand the network of students UH and also to to
to domestify working in the tech space. And then lastly,
the students who complete and become graduates of p tech
are first in line to be able to take jobs
(04:42):
in the companies that their partnered within their p tech school. So, so, Helia,
can you tell us a bit about yourself and what
led you to get involved with p tech. So when
my parents started their divorce, I was in my last
year of middle school and my dad was the sole
provider of the household. My mom was a stay at
(05:04):
home mom, and the reality for me at that time
was since I won't be with dad, I don't have
money for college and it was really scary. And p
Tech was starting in the high school in our area,
and I said, hey, this is a really great opportunity
(05:24):
if I get chosen to get a college education without
having to pay for it. So when I chose to apply,
it was just I had a minor interest in tech
from when I lived in the Bronx and I was
a part of the Lego robotics team at my elementary school,
and I thought, if I could just apply that little
(05:46):
piece of knowledge to whatever coursework all face in high school,
then maybe I have a good chance at surviving college
in high school together. So, do you still have a
particular interest in robotics or have you moved on to
other things. Pe Tech really helped me realize there are
multiple sectors in tech, and it's just not engineering per se.
(06:09):
Right now, I'm a part of the UX Design Apprenticeship
because during my time of Pechech I got to be
a CSR intern and I got to realize helping people
and interacting with people is something I really love and
robotics wasn't anything like that, so it wasn't my passion.
And you said, sorry, just for people who aren't familiar.
(06:31):
So this user experience. But what is CSR. Oh, it's
the Corferent Social Responsibility Team at IBM. Oh great, and uh, Eric,
the same thing. Can you tell us a bit about
your background, about yourself and your interests and what led
you into p tech. Yeah, so what led me to
pechech was I went to the orientation where Rushie Davis
(06:54):
talked about, um, how you can get a free associate
degree along with your high school diploma, and I saw, uh,
you know what better way of getting a degree? It's free?
And for sure I couldn't probably in debt if it
wasn't for for this program. Um. So I'm very thankful
to be tech right now, I'm a hardware developer at IBM.
(07:16):
I what I do mainly is characterized ships and characterize
things inside main frames to better understand our systems and
to further progress than for future generations of IBM machines.
Now I'm curious, well, what does it mean to characterize
a chip? So it would just to be to stress
test them. Have you ever played a video game like
(07:40):
UH in terms of like a console or PC, as
you could tell, like stressing the system would UH differ
between you know, playing a game that runs sixty frames
per second versus just googling something. So we're just taking
different UH workloads and seeing how they how much power,
(08:02):
how much UH ampires and stuff like that the chips
would produce when running different stress tests. Oh excellent, Okay cool?
Will the new BioShock melt my computer? I don't think
that's my question? But Joel, let's come back to you.
So if you think about p tech as an answer,
(08:24):
what is the question? What are the problems it is
designed to solve? So, UM, if we mentioned the skills
cap before and and just to explain what the skills
gap is, is that in the marketplace there are and
this has been consistent for for modern ten years UH.
The technology is changing jobs very very quickly. So there
(08:48):
used to be a couple of companies, tech companies that
needed technology skills. Now every company needs technology skills. And
what we've seen is that the the the jobs that
are available in the marketplace, UM, there are not enough
people with skills to actually feel those jobs. Who have
the skills to fill those jobs. The paradox of all
of this is that there actually is a large population
(09:10):
of people who are unemployed, and so so the labor
market has people who could be taking these jobs, but
they are not. They don't have the skills to take
these job. So that's that's the skills go That's one
thing that Petech is trying to solve. The second thing
that Pete is trying to solve, which is much more fundamental,
and it speaks to why we start at ninth grade,
(09:30):
is that one way of looking at the labor market
is to look at what that gap is between the
jobs that are available and and and the skills, and
that skills gap right now as we're speaking, or at
least before COVID was about seven hundred thousand tech jobs
that we're going on field because the skills were not
available in the marketplace. The other way to look at
that is like why are they not available in the marketplace?
(09:53):
And if there were, like which types of people do
not have access to those jobs? So there's sometimes where
it's not just a matter of skills, but it's a
matter of opportunity. So are you getting the option to
get a degree. Are you getting the option to get
a degree in the in the in the right area
that puts you on a path to be able to
get a job. Do you have the networks to actually
get a job? Would you even find out if this
(10:13):
job was going in a place like i DM, do
you have the networks to be able to get into that?
And so if we look at our society, there are
many people who are just locked out of the opportunity.
So there's also an opportunity gap. And what Pete is
trying to solve is like in the communities that businesses working,
how can we create a program away for people who
(10:33):
have talent to be matched with the opportunity to get
into these jobs, but also to acquire the skills and
the credentials to get the job. So if you look
at pro tech design, it disintegrated curriculum where you get
your associates degree, and then where the Associates degree is
really the output is putting you in a place where
you can get that job. But then everything about the
mentorship and the paid work experiences is about expanding that
(10:56):
network and giving you access to where the jobs are.
So you have a strong network and you have also
a strong visibility to be able to get into the
into these jobs. So, Joel, this might overlap with the
answer you just gave, but maybe this will get it
a different aspect of it. P tech was created about
a decade ago, right and roughly in the wake of
the Great Recession, when obviously the job's outlook was or
(11:19):
had recently been pretty grim for a lot of people.
How has the world changed since then? Does p tech
still address the same problems it was originally meant to solve,
or have new challenges and opportunities presented themselves over the
course of the lifetime of p tech. So when, yeah,
when petech was created, the unemployment rate I think was
about ten percent after um, you know, the financial crisis.
(11:43):
And when you look at this big economic shocks that
we get, like COVID and the financial crisis, they always
lead to to unemployment. What has been strange about what
passed not so strange because we see the acceleration of technology,
the next relation of technology has only gone faster and faster.
Is that even in those types of recession and even
(12:05):
now when you look at COVID, the jobs that still
continue to remain on field as still continue to grow
and be stable at tech jobs. So in a way,
pe tech has is more relevant now than than ever,
and there's a recognition of that actually in education systems
around around the world. So just in the past eighteen months,
PETE has grown from about in from eight countries to
(12:29):
twenty five countries. And that's because many policymakers around the
world are now really seeing the need to be adopting
these types of programs into the public education systems that
really better prepare people to feel the skills guide, but
also in a way that creates that opens of opportunity
for people within communities to be able to get access
to these jobs. So I would say it's much more
(12:49):
relevant and now than ever. I'm we're seeing it in
the adoption rates. If you could speak to some specifics
and concrete examples, what kind of new tech and tech
relategy jobs are really emerging today and in the near
future as opposed to in the recent past. Yes, so
there are a few jobs that simply I did not
(13:10):
exist five years ago, but are really very prominent now
or when past when not as prom prominent. So so
if we look at cloud and develops jobs, um, there
there are new versions of those now that are relevant
in the marketplace and that I've developed AI jobs are
frankly new in many areas. But then if you look
(13:30):
at much more of the stable tech jobs like software development,
UM hardware development, which is something that Eric does, UM,
you see that there's been not only constant, but they're growing.
And also what you early is doing is is user
experience design. We're creating so many more products right now
that in the hands of consumers that are not mechanical anymore.
(13:51):
Where it's about how the consumers react with products and
how they interact with them. So there's just a lot
of new jobs that have been created, jobs that have
changed aged. But the most important thing is that the
acceleration of technology means that this continues to we continue
to see a very very strong demand in these new jobs.
So I guess, as you just alluded to it, it's
(14:12):
not just that students who are preparing to enter the
workforce today need specific technical skills that are relevant to
the jobs that exist, but they also need to be
able to adapt to a constantly changing set of requirements
for for the you know, the technological world we live in.
So I guess this is a question for all three
of you. Maybe Joel, we can start with you. Do
(14:34):
you think adaptation itself is a skill that can be
taught if the tech industry is constantly and rapidly changing,
Does the technology education require training on how to adapt
to new skills? I think what we what we've all experienced,
I guess as students UM and going through the university
(14:55):
and going through college, and is that the education system
just changes a little slower than the technology space uh
and and specifically tech because tech is just moving so
fast and frankly, it is hard for any sector, even
policies to catch up. UM. So, what I think is
(15:16):
unique about Peter in the way that it helps people
react to change and continue to learn. Is this idea
that we spend a lot more time with the young people,
exposing them to what happens in the industry. I think
giving people a sense of what is happening in the
industry and having them giving them the chance to work
with mentors, and giving them the chance to work with
the internships, seeing how just the things that they play
(15:39):
with in school, how much it changes by the time
they get to the internship, how much it changes by
the time they get to work. It gives us It
gives them the same experience as we have at work,
where we know we have to continually learn because it's
very clear to us in the way we work just
how much things are changing and that we have to
keep up our skills. So I think it really starting
and giving young people that exposure way be for they
(16:00):
have to face that world is something that I think
is a critical component of PEA Tech. And so Suhalia
and Eric, do you have thoughts about this. Did your
educational experience or does your educational experience incorporate that feeling,
that feeling that you need to learn how to adapt
in addition to just learning, you know, what skills are
required today. Uh? Yeah, I could definitely say that it's
(16:25):
kind of something you learn while in college or ear
decided it's not about just prorarium something. It's about learning
how to fix it. It's about identifying the problem, looking
at it through multiple UH lenses, and determining what solutions
are there, and then eliminating those solutions so you get
to the best one. I personally think that learning to
(16:47):
adapt doesn't even really only to tech. During my time
in pe Tech, all of my teachers, whether it be
in English or social studies. They explained that as time
goes on, things have to change, and just because you
learn how to do something one way doesn't mean it's
always going to be that way. And understanding how to study,
(17:09):
understanding how to research are all important parts of adapting
and making yourself a better person so you're better equipped
to solve problems. All right, let's come back to Joel.
Here is the need for new technological skills something that
primarily affects people in the tech industry, say software and
hardware developers, or does this apply to other fields as well.
(17:32):
We have a belief in the company at IBM that
all jobs are going to be impacted by by technology.
So we all, regardless of what we do. When I
say technology, the AI specifically an automation impacting all jobs.
Um if so, I mean if you if your restaurant
(17:56):
right now, your interaction with technology is massive, especially during
of it you're probably feeling, you know, most of your
your orders and your revenue through a tech interface for
for for delivery and take out during this period. And
that's just a small example. So we believe that no
matter what job you're in, it is really important to
get to understand the technologies that are impacting our lives,
(18:18):
that are very much keen in our lives and are
changing the nature of our work and are changing the
nature of our society. One of the things that we've
done alongside pe tech is to create a platform called
open p tech, and open pe tech is really focused
on this. It's about like really helping students, regardless of
whether they're in p tech or outside p tech, to
learn about these key technologies that are really transforming our lives.
(18:42):
And they are cloud, artificial intelligence, there is a cyber u,
there is blockchain and so and very much design design thinking,
which is a way of how we solve problems. So
these are some of the things that I really impacting allies,
and I think everybody needs to understand them because they're
(19:03):
impacting society, not just jobs. So I'm interested in the
way that p tech fuses together secondary and post secondary
education in the one unified pathway. I guess, first Joel,
what was the thinking behind that design? And then for
Eric and to Helio, what is that experience? Like, Yeah,
I'm really interested to hear the experience of Eric and
(19:25):
here and they they're thinking behind that is that pathways
have been proven to impact completion. So they you see
pathways a lot in education programs, and they've been shown
that when you have built in pathways for students, you
you help them complete whatever you're trying to get them
(19:46):
to to to the goal. Um So it was another
thing is that early college students that take part in
any kind of early college ended up going to college.
More so, those two things that way existing successful things
within the education system were into p tech. Um So
this pathway of using both high school and and college
was something that was already proven to um at least
(20:09):
they are taking the early college were already proven to
work for students. The big difference that we brought in
was that there was a real clear goal right now,
and the goal was that you leave pe Tech with
a degree. And so instead of just having early college
courses where you can take whatever you like and just
have access to early college, this is packaging in such
a way that you're taking things at all together actually
(20:31):
deliver you something that all of your early college opportunity
is really focused on delivering you. This uh, this associate's degree,
the associates degree is really the goal in p tech
because the high school diploma, it's something that was created
in the in the agree and economy, it's not enough
anymore to take you to really guarantee you a career.
So but at the same time, you don't need a
(20:51):
four year degree to be able to get into some
of the some some really good well paid jobs right now.
I mean the jobs that is advertising right now do
not need a four year degree. So there was this
point about the asocis degree, which is a critical point
to get students too and using these pathways together to
allow them to have a strong pathway that was guided
(21:12):
where they will be housed in a in a in
a in a high school and don't have a drop
off points where they have to like finish one and
then say okay, I'm going to apply to that and
move into a different system. Those things have proven to
help students complete So that's why the pathway and is
using of those pathways was important in the design and
uh Eric and to Haley had what are your thoughts
on this, What was the experience like and did you have,
say friends or peers to compare the experience with who
(21:36):
weren't involved in educational pathways that fused together the associate's
degree with the high school experience the same way. Yeah,
so for me, the experience went pretty smoothly. UM, but
that was fortunate. UM. I think it definitely did sump
me up for success without a doubt in terms of
like I had exposures to robotics as uh to Haley
(21:58):
had and uh I did there for basically all my
years in in high school. And not only that, it
kind of translated into other courses I took at a
college level. And in addition to that, it also sets
up a nice foundation, so I didn't stop at my
(22:19):
associate's degree. I continue to get my bachelor's. UM. It
sets a nice foundation in terms of either you could
stop at your associates or not and continue with your bachelor's.
I would say the p Tech experience is one of
a kind that there's not anything you could compare it
(22:40):
to if you've been through the traditional high school model,
because you're taking high school classes alongside your college classes,
and whether that be in the high school or on
a college campus, they're very different. And when you have
teachers like at my school that weren't a part of
(23:00):
the p tech staff that would teach you alongside your
non p tech student colleagues, it was just different seeing
how everyone reacted to certain situations. I feel like petech
prepares you more for the outside world, app like after
(23:22):
high school, what that's gonna look like. Because during my
time in pe tech, they were like, Hey, this is
how you set yourself up for the future if you
want to have an apprenticeship or an internship. And at
the same time, my high school friends that weren't in
p tech, we're just going about their high school experience, like, Hey,
there's a football game on Friday, and I was like,
(23:42):
I can't I have a test on Monday. For college,
I got to study. So protech really teaches you how
do you manage your parming yourself pretty well, and because
of that, I feel like it prepared me a lot
better for after high school graduation what life was going
to look like. Okay, oh, that sounds like it comes
back to the question about adaptation, the kind of skills
(24:04):
that are applied to anything. Really Yeah, and I I think,
I mean Eric somehow managed to just sailed by. But
you know, when we talk to PETE students, we definitely
see that the schedule can be grueling, which is wonderful
that we have so many students who drive through. And
so when we look at the graduates that come, we
(24:26):
are to our to our business. We finished this, We're
looking at people that we know as seriously motivated UM
and and I've really shown just by going through this
program that it means a lot to them and that
they can work, and that they can they can drive through,
and that they have discipline. So I think when Joel
talks about discipline, it really starts the p text students
(24:48):
apart from traditional high school model students, because when you
step into the college realm of your course work, your
college teachers look at you and go, hey, I know
that your sixteen, but I'm not going to treat you
like your sixteen because you're being held to a different
standard here at the college. And I can't say, you
know what, they're sixteen, I'm going to grade them differently
(25:10):
because that's not the point of pe Tech. They're trying
to give you the skills that adults have so you
can go have a career outside of high school. And
it was really motivational to be able to see that
there were other people like me that I knew that
held the same values and disciplines as I did. Because
(25:31):
it made the high school. Part of my experience a
lot easier because there were people whose goals aligned with mine,
so it was a lot easier to make friends and
have study groups. So, Joel, let's come back to you.
What aspects of pe tech are you most proud of.
I'm really proud about his systemic nature. That it is
(25:53):
built into the education system. So what I mean is
it starts to contribute to the body of knowledge that
we have about like how do we think about the
education system in the future. So, uh yeah, So I
like the fact that that it's not like a private
program that you know, a company has created on the site.
(26:13):
It's actually built, really built in within the public education system,
where the responsibility still for for the curriculum and everything
is the same as everywhere else in the public education
sector and sector. And then the business is coming to
augment and add this alignment. The other effect of that
(26:34):
is that we are reaching in and actually making sure
that economic growth is inclusive. Um. So, if I just
look at our own company, we are firmly creating talent
and hiring talent from New York and we're making sure
that by the time we're looking for talent, we are
not just looking at those who have like uh, you know,
(26:56):
who've managed to go to Harvard and to m I T.
Which to make sure that we go and give access
to young people to be able to to you know,
get the qualifications that they need and build the skills
that they need to be able to get access as
to these jobs. UM. So the talent is there, and
the talent needs opportunity. So the other part of that
I'm really proud about it is that we are actually
(27:18):
creating opportunity for talented young people to be able to
bring that talent to benefit our business and that way
where we get to grow or when the business is
growing and then econ and the economy is growing, it's
it's more inclusive with p TEK. So there's only two
aspects that I'm really proud of. So, Eric and Shlia,
a couple of questions for you to um and we'll
(27:38):
start with you. So, Helia, what would you tell a
student who's considering going down this path? What would you
tell them about about pe TECH? I would tell them
it's one of the most rewarding experiences that they could
look back on as long as they're serious about it.
When I look at my experience in high school. I
(28:00):
would look at the students who didn't take petech as seriously,
and I would feel bad because they're missing out on
this great opportunity because they don't feel passionate about whatever
degree we were urging, whether it be cybersecurity, computer science.
So I would tell them, if you're not passionate about
(28:22):
the degree that you're p tech school offers, don't feel
like you have to apply because someone said this is
a good idea and you should do it. As long
as you're passionate about what you're learning about and you're
passionate about making a change in the STEM field, you'll
be okay. And there are gonna be so many people
you'll meet along the way that are going to help you,
(28:43):
whether it be academically or outside of that. In your internships,
you'll have mentors who will tell you, hey, this is
how you overcome this fear you have about public speaking.
I used to be really shy, like something like this
would have literally brought me to tears, how scared I
would have been. But my mentor was there and was like, hey,
(29:03):
baby steps, this is how we're going to accomplish being
more outspoken and being more of a people person and
if it wasn't for her, if it wasn't for petech,
I wouldn't be the person I am today. So I
would tell them be passionate and take it very seriously
because it's a once in a lifetime opportunity because after
(29:24):
high school, petech isn't an option. Awesome, what about you, Eric,
I would definitely tell them if this is the path
they want to take, because there are different pea techs
out there, like I think there are even some now
that are catered to the medical field. Um. So I
would tell them to make sure that's what you want
to do, because sometimes you get into it or sometimes
you're not really passionate about it and you end up
(29:46):
leaving or you end up not caring. Um. Oh. And
I would also tell them that, you know, definitely, um,
you're gonna have to take some time out of your
day to study, take some time out every day to
really just apply yourself because it is it is a workload, uh,
but it is rewarding at the end. So I would
say that the coolest part of pre tech is it's
(30:08):
gender inclusive. And I'm really proud of the efforts that
the pre tech model puts forward to include females in
STEM professions. I remember when I took my first college class,
the class before us that was in the room, there
were only two girls in the class that left, and
(30:29):
the rest of the class was boys. And when my
class entered the room, I looked around and I realized
there was actually a fifty split of girls and boys
in that room, and it felt really empowering to know
that me and my female classmates were going to be
a part of generation of STEMP professionals that younger girls
could look up to. And at my school we had
(30:52):
the she Can stem event every March for Women's History Month,
which was something I implemented during my time as an
entering and being able to look at middle school girls
in the school district and say, hey, I'm a girl
in a computer profession, which is really crazy considering any
time you ask them what an engineer looks like, what
(31:14):
a computer scientist looks like, they usually say someone like
Steve drops and no offense, but it's always a guy.
And being able to be a girl that younger girls
could look up to was really cool. And p tech
is the only platform I've ever seen give women a
chance to say, hey, I enjoy technology, and I'm really
(31:35):
good at what I do. So they gave us a
voice to be like, hey, I have something I can
bring to the table, and it made you feel comfortable
speaking out. So finally, Joel, what do you see for
the future for this program and for programs like it? UM,
I'll send of you my hopes. I hope that they
(31:55):
continue to to inspire mkas and education leaders about how
we should be looking. UM had continually improving our education
system going forward with the world that we have right
now and with the challenges that we we face. UM,
(32:17):
I then that's that's so, that's that's my hopes we have.
P tech is a mature model right now, is ten
years old, and so it is clear that it's working.
There has been a report that has just been published
by an independent party m NDRC, which has shown that
(32:37):
students are actually getting better outcoms as a resort of
of p tech. We're seeing as more schools mature than
more of our graduates going to college and getting hired.
Also in companies like our like ours and there's nobs
are growing. So from an impact perspective, we we we
know that it works UM, so we are really looking
(33:00):
for making sure that that we the publishing poblicy makers
get inspired by it and and and take it up
and implemented in as many places as possible. What I'm
excited about is that I think it's a privilege to
get to work on some of the problems that we're
working on as a company. We just by the nature
(33:22):
of being a large globle company, we get to see
really interesting problems that are brought to us via clients
that helped to change the world. And I think it's
wonderful that we are creating the opportunity for people who
are talented like as Failier and and Eric to be
able to bring their talents to work on these types
of problems. It's I think we should make sure that
(33:44):
that people inside to get the chance to work on
world changing things. And so I'm really excited by the
fact that we are working in areas where we're giving
students real opportunity to take that talents and contribute to
work problems that they can be really proud it off.
And so and then so I want to see pe
Tech in more states, in more schools, and just continue
(34:06):
to see the model grow both in the US and internationally.
All Right, well, thanks again to Joel so Halia and
Eric for chatting with us today. Again, if you want
to hear more from this series, you can look up
the episodes of our show as well as episodes of
tech Stuff labeled smart Talks. To learn more about smart Talks,
you can go to IBM dot com slash smart Talks,
(34:29):
and to read more about p tech you can check
out www dot PTech dot org. And of course, if
you want to hear other episodes of Stuff to Blow
Your Mind, you can find us wherever you get your
podcast huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer
Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in
touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other,
to suggest a topic for the future, or just to
(34:50):
say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff
to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your
Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
for My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Today, we're going to be talking about IBM's role in
an educational model known as p Tech, which was established
inn with a mission to empower students with the skills
they need for careers in STEM. We'll be talking with
Joe L. Mangan, executive director of the p Tech Program
at IBM, as well as PTech graduate and hardware developer
(00:23):
Eric Cholula Martinez and p tech graduate and IBM apprentice
Suhlia Karam Doran. If you want to hear previous entries
in this series, you can simply look up the episodes
labeled smart Talks and our feed from earlier this year,
and you can also check out the episodes of smart
Talks on the I Heart Media podcast tech Stuff. And
now let's jump right into our conversation. Joel, let's start
(00:47):
with you. Can you tell us a bit about yourself,
your background and how you wound up working for IBM. Yes,
so um I joined pe Tech just about over a
year ago. I am actually a recent American. I was
born in Africa in the country call Cameroon and uh
and I moved to the US about eight years ago
(01:08):
after you know, doing work and studying in in the
UK and working all over Europe, in Student and Denmark,
mainly in IBMS consulting business. So I joined our CSR
team a couple of years ago and this has been
my most exciting work at IBM doing this work at
p Tech. Now, what led you to get involved specifically
(01:30):
in education? UM? Education has always played a really important
role in my life. I have benefited from a lot
of opportunities that my my ps did not get and
the outcomes in our lives has been is very very
clear to see us as we've all got gotten older. Also,
my mom was an avid believer in education. She stopped
(01:53):
her education at the age of thirteen, and she was
so insistent that we get the best education that we
that we could get and that we took it seriously.
I was really inspirational was that after she had six
children and she was thirty five at the time, she
went back to school and she studied to become a
teacher and she was an elementary school teacher for the
(02:15):
rest of our life. So it's something that has been
a really passionating in our family. So we work a
lot in education, but mainly in access to education, and
this is my first foray really into the systematic part
of education. Well, let's talk about about p tech for
a second then, So, so first of all, can you
just tell us what p tech is, what it stands for,
(02:36):
and then how does it work. PETE stands for Pathways
to Technology Early College, high School and so now you know,
I we just call it pe tech UM. So PETER
was conceived ten years ago to have a different and
innovative way to tackle the skills gap. I think we
(02:57):
can talk about the skills gap in a minute, but
focus really on how p tech works. UM. Pe tech
allows ninth graders in a p tech school to complete
a STEM related Associates degree and the high school diploma
at the same time. So the aim of the program
is that while you're in high school that you complete
(03:18):
UM that your p tech program with a STEM Related
Associates degree as well as your high school diploma. Obviously,
so instead of having a nine to twelve model, so
the K to twelve model that we're all familiar with
is a kid to fourteen, which means that's an extra
two years that a student may use to be able
(03:39):
to complete both the diploma and and the the associate's
degree in a STEM field. What is unique about petech
is the role that industry plays. So there are three
parties to every p tech school. There's the high school,
there is the community college which offers the associates degree,
and then there's the business. What the business does in
(03:59):
p tech, which which is really unique in this program
in education programs, is that it aligns the degree pathway
to what is a growing job area, job area that
is in high demand for for the future of work.
And then the business provides mentoring for the students, which
is to help them build a series of eleven critical
(04:20):
skills that are really important for for for work these days.
And then the last thing we do is to provide
paid internships to provide real experience at work and to
expand the network of students UH and also to to
to domestify working in the tech space. And then lastly,
the students who complete and become graduates of p tech
are first in line to be able to take jobs
(04:42):
in the companies that their partnered within their p tech school. So, so, Helia,
can you tell us a bit about yourself and what
led you to get involved with p tech. So when
my parents started their divorce, I was in my last
year of middle school and my dad was the sole
provider of the household. My mom was a stay at
(05:04):
home mom, and the reality for me at that time
was since I won't be with dad, I don't have
money for college and it was really scary. And p
Tech was starting in the high school in our area,
and I said, hey, this is a really great opportunity
(05:24):
if I get chosen to get a college education without
having to pay for it. So when I chose to apply,
it was just I had a minor interest in tech
from when I lived in the Bronx and I was
a part of the Lego robotics team at my elementary school,
and I thought, if I could just apply that little
(05:46):
piece of knowledge to whatever coursework all face in high school,
then maybe I have a good chance at surviving college
in high school together. So, do you still have a
particular interest in robotics or have you moved on to
other things. Pe Tech really helped me realize there are
multiple sectors in tech, and it's just not engineering per se.
(06:09):
Right now, I'm a part of the UX Design Apprenticeship
because during my time of Pechech I got to be
a CSR intern and I got to realize helping people
and interacting with people is something I really love and
robotics wasn't anything like that, so it wasn't my passion.
And you said, sorry, just for people who aren't familiar.
(06:31):
So this user experience. But what is CSR. Oh, it's
the Corferent Social Responsibility Team at IBM. Oh great, and uh, Eric,
the same thing. Can you tell us a bit about
your background, about yourself and your interests and what led
you into p tech. Yeah, so what led me to
pechech was I went to the orientation where Rushie Davis
(06:54):
talked about, um, how you can get a free associate
degree along with your high school diploma, and I saw, uh,
you know what better way of getting a degree? It's free?
And for sure I couldn't probably in debt if it
wasn't for for this program. Um. So I'm very thankful
to be tech right now, I'm a hardware developer at IBM.
(07:16):
I what I do mainly is characterized ships and characterize
things inside main frames to better understand our systems and
to further progress than for future generations of IBM machines.
Now I'm curious, well, what does it mean to characterize
a chip? So it would just to be to stress
test them. Have you ever played a video game like
(07:40):
UH in terms of like a console or PC, as
you could tell, like stressing the system would UH differ
between you know, playing a game that runs sixty frames
per second versus just googling something. So we're just taking
different UH workloads and seeing how they how much power,
(08:02):
how much UH ampires and stuff like that the chips
would produce when running different stress tests. Oh excellent, Okay cool?
Will the new BioShock melt my computer? I don't think
that's my question? But Joel, let's come back to you.
So if you think about p tech as an answer,
(08:24):
what is the question? What are the problems it is
designed to solve? So, UM, if we mentioned the skills
cap before and and just to explain what the skills
gap is, is that in the marketplace there are and
this has been consistent for for modern ten years UH.
The technology is changing jobs very very quickly. So there
(08:48):
used to be a couple of companies, tech companies that
needed technology skills. Now every company needs technology skills. And
what we've seen is that the the the jobs that
are available in the marketplace, UM, there are not enough
people with skills to actually feel those jobs. Who have
the skills to fill those jobs. The paradox of all
of this is that there actually is a large population
(09:10):
of people who are unemployed, and so so the labor
market has people who could be taking these jobs, but
they are not. They don't have the skills to take
these job. So that's that's the skills go That's one
thing that Petech is trying to solve. The second thing
that Pete is trying to solve, which is much more fundamental,
and it speaks to why we start at ninth grade,
(09:30):
is that one way of looking at the labor market
is to look at what that gap is between the
jobs that are available and and and the skills, and
that skills gap right now as we're speaking, or at
least before COVID was about seven hundred thousand tech jobs
that we're going on field because the skills were not
available in the marketplace. The other way to look at
that is like why are they not available in the marketplace?
(09:53):
And if there were, like which types of people do
not have access to those jobs? So there's sometimes where
it's not just a matter of skills, but it's a
matter of opportunity. So are you getting the option to
get a degree. Are you getting the option to get
a degree in the in the in the right area
that puts you on a path to be able to
get a job. Do you have the networks to actually
get a job? Would you even find out if this
(10:13):
job was going in a place like i DM, do
you have the networks to be able to get into that?
And so if we look at our society, there are
many people who are just locked out of the opportunity.
So there's also an opportunity gap. And what Pete is
trying to solve is like in the communities that businesses working,
how can we create a program away for people who
(10:33):
have talent to be matched with the opportunity to get
into these jobs, but also to acquire the skills and
the credentials to get the job. So if you look
at pro tech design, it disintegrated curriculum where you get
your associates degree, and then where the Associates degree is
really the output is putting you in a place where
you can get that job. But then everything about the
mentorship and the paid work experiences is about expanding that
(10:56):
network and giving you access to where the jobs are.
So you have a strong network and you have also
a strong visibility to be able to get into the
into these jobs. So, Joel, this might overlap with the
answer you just gave, but maybe this will get it
a different aspect of it. P tech was created about
a decade ago, right and roughly in the wake of
the Great Recession, when obviously the job's outlook was or
(11:19):
had recently been pretty grim for a lot of people.
How has the world changed since then? Does p tech
still address the same problems it was originally meant to solve,
or have new challenges and opportunities presented themselves over the
course of the lifetime of p tech. So when, yeah,
when petech was created, the unemployment rate I think was
about ten percent after um, you know, the financial crisis.
(11:43):
And when you look at this big economic shocks that
we get, like COVID and the financial crisis, they always
lead to to unemployment. What has been strange about what
passed not so strange because we see the acceleration of technology,
the next relation of technology has only gone faster and faster.
Is that even in those types of recession and even
(12:05):
now when you look at COVID, the jobs that still
continue to remain on field as still continue to grow
and be stable at tech jobs. So in a way,
pe tech has is more relevant now than than ever,
and there's a recognition of that actually in education systems
around around the world. So just in the past eighteen months,
PETE has grown from about in from eight countries to
(12:29):
twenty five countries. And that's because many policymakers around the
world are now really seeing the need to be adopting
these types of programs into the public education systems that
really better prepare people to feel the skills guide, but
also in a way that creates that opens of opportunity
for people within communities to be able to get access
to these jobs. So I would say it's much more
(12:49):
relevant and now than ever. I'm we're seeing it in
the adoption rates. If you could speak to some specifics
and concrete examples, what kind of new tech and tech
relategy jobs are really emerging today and in the near
future as opposed to in the recent past. Yes, so
there are a few jobs that simply I did not
(13:10):
exist five years ago, but are really very prominent now
or when past when not as prom prominent. So so
if we look at cloud and develops jobs, um, there
there are new versions of those now that are relevant
in the marketplace and that I've developed AI jobs are
frankly new in many areas. But then if you look
(13:30):
at much more of the stable tech jobs like software development,
UM hardware development, which is something that Eric does, UM,
you see that there's been not only constant, but they're growing.
And also what you early is doing is is user
experience design. We're creating so many more products right now
that in the hands of consumers that are not mechanical anymore.
(13:51):
Where it's about how the consumers react with products and
how they interact with them. So there's just a lot
of new jobs that have been created, jobs that have
changed aged. But the most important thing is that the
acceleration of technology means that this continues to we continue
to see a very very strong demand in these new jobs.
So I guess, as you just alluded to it, it's
(14:12):
not just that students who are preparing to enter the
workforce today need specific technical skills that are relevant to
the jobs that exist, but they also need to be
able to adapt to a constantly changing set of requirements
for for the you know, the technological world we live in.
So I guess this is a question for all three
of you. Maybe Joel, we can start with you. Do
(14:34):
you think adaptation itself is a skill that can be
taught if the tech industry is constantly and rapidly changing,
Does the technology education require training on how to adapt
to new skills? I think what we what we've all experienced,
I guess as students UM and going through the university
(14:55):
and going through college, and is that the education system
just changes a little slower than the technology space uh
and and specifically tech because tech is just moving so
fast and frankly, it is hard for any sector, even
policies to catch up. UM. So, what I think is
(15:16):
unique about Peter in the way that it helps people
react to change and continue to learn. Is this idea
that we spend a lot more time with the young people,
exposing them to what happens in the industry. I think
giving people a sense of what is happening in the
industry and having them giving them the chance to work
with mentors, and giving them the chance to work with
the internships, seeing how just the things that they play
(15:39):
with in school, how much it changes by the time
they get to the internship, how much it changes by
the time they get to work. It gives us It
gives them the same experience as we have at work,
where we know we have to continually learn because it's
very clear to us in the way we work just
how much things are changing and that we have to
keep up our skills. So I think it really starting
and giving young people that exposure way be for they
(16:00):
have to face that world is something that I think
is a critical component of PEA Tech. And so Suhalia
and Eric, do you have thoughts about this. Did your
educational experience or does your educational experience incorporate that feeling,
that feeling that you need to learn how to adapt
in addition to just learning, you know, what skills are
required today. Uh? Yeah, I could definitely say that it's
(16:25):
kind of something you learn while in college or ear
decided it's not about just prorarium something. It's about learning
how to fix it. It's about identifying the problem, looking
at it through multiple UH lenses, and determining what solutions
are there, and then eliminating those solutions so you get
to the best one. I personally think that learning to
(16:47):
adapt doesn't even really only to tech. During my time
in pe Tech, all of my teachers, whether it be
in English or social studies. They explained that as time
goes on, things have to change, and just because you
learn how to do something one way doesn't mean it's
always going to be that way. And understanding how to study,
(17:09):
understanding how to research are all important parts of adapting
and making yourself a better person so you're better equipped
to solve problems. All right, let's come back to Joel.
Here is the need for new technological skills something that
primarily affects people in the tech industry, say software and
hardware developers, or does this apply to other fields as well.
(17:32):
We have a belief in the company at IBM that
all jobs are going to be impacted by by technology.
So we all, regardless of what we do. When I
say technology, the AI specifically an automation impacting all jobs.
Um if so, I mean if you if your restaurant
(17:56):
right now, your interaction with technology is massive, especially during
of it you're probably feeling, you know, most of your
your orders and your revenue through a tech interface for
for for delivery and take out during this period. And
that's just a small example. So we believe that no
matter what job you're in, it is really important to
get to understand the technologies that are impacting our lives,
(18:18):
that are very much keen in our lives and are
changing the nature of our work and are changing the
nature of our society. One of the things that we've
done alongside pe tech is to create a platform called
open p tech, and open pe tech is really focused
on this. It's about like really helping students, regardless of
whether they're in p tech or outside p tech, to
learn about these key technologies that are really transforming our lives.
(18:42):
And they are cloud, artificial intelligence, there is a cyber u,
there is blockchain and so and very much design design thinking,
which is a way of how we solve problems. So
these are some of the things that I really impacting allies,
and I think everybody needs to understand them because they're
(19:03):
impacting society, not just jobs. So I'm interested in the
way that p tech fuses together secondary and post secondary
education in the one unified pathway. I guess, first Joel,
what was the thinking behind that design? And then for
Eric and to Helio, what is that experience? Like, Yeah,
I'm really interested to hear the experience of Eric and
(19:25):
here and they they're thinking behind that is that pathways
have been proven to impact completion. So they you see
pathways a lot in education programs, and they've been shown
that when you have built in pathways for students, you
you help them complete whatever you're trying to get them
(19:46):
to to to the goal. Um So it was another
thing is that early college students that take part in
any kind of early college ended up going to college.
More so, those two things that way existing successful things
within the education system were into p tech. Um So
this pathway of using both high school and and college
was something that was already proven to um at least
(20:09):
they are taking the early college were already proven to
work for students. The big difference that we brought in
was that there was a real clear goal right now,
and the goal was that you leave pe Tech with
a degree. And so instead of just having early college
courses where you can take whatever you like and just
have access to early college, this is packaging in such
a way that you're taking things at all together actually
(20:31):
deliver you something that all of your early college opportunity
is really focused on delivering you. This uh, this associate's degree,
the associates degree is really the goal in p tech
because the high school diploma, it's something that was created
in the in the agree and economy, it's not enough
anymore to take you to really guarantee you a career.
So but at the same time, you don't need a
(20:51):
four year degree to be able to get into some
of the some some really good well paid jobs right now.
I mean the jobs that is advertising right now do
not need a four year degree. So there was this
point about the asocis degree, which is a critical point
to get students too and using these pathways together to
allow them to have a strong pathway that was guided
(21:12):
where they will be housed in a in a in
a in a high school and don't have a drop
off points where they have to like finish one and
then say okay, I'm going to apply to that and
move into a different system. Those things have proven to
help students complete So that's why the pathway and is
using of those pathways was important in the design and
uh Eric and to Haley had what are your thoughts
on this, What was the experience like and did you have,
say friends or peers to compare the experience with who
(21:36):
weren't involved in educational pathways that fused together the associate's
degree with the high school experience the same way. Yeah,
so for me, the experience went pretty smoothly. UM, but
that was fortunate. UM. I think it definitely did sump
me up for success without a doubt in terms of
like I had exposures to robotics as uh to Haley
(21:58):
had and uh I did there for basically all my
years in in high school. And not only that, it
kind of translated into other courses I took at a
college level. And in addition to that, it also sets
up a nice foundation, so I didn't stop at my
(22:19):
associate's degree. I continue to get my bachelor's. UM. It
sets a nice foundation in terms of either you could
stop at your associates or not and continue with your bachelor's.
I would say the p Tech experience is one of
a kind that there's not anything you could compare it
(22:40):
to if you've been through the traditional high school model,
because you're taking high school classes alongside your college classes,
and whether that be in the high school or on
a college campus, they're very different. And when you have
teachers like at my school that weren't a part of
(23:00):
the p tech staff that would teach you alongside your
non p tech student colleagues, it was just different seeing
how everyone reacted to certain situations. I feel like petech
prepares you more for the outside world, app like after
(23:22):
high school, what that's gonna look like. Because during my
time in pe tech, they were like, Hey, this is
how you set yourself up for the future if you
want to have an apprenticeship or an internship. And at
the same time, my high school friends that weren't in
p tech, we're just going about their high school experience, like, Hey,
there's a football game on Friday, and I was like,
(23:42):
I can't I have a test on Monday. For college,
I got to study. So protech really teaches you how
do you manage your parming yourself pretty well, and because
of that, I feel like it prepared me a lot
better for after high school graduation what life was going
to look like. Okay, oh, that sounds like it comes
back to the question about adaptation, the kind of skills
(24:04):
that are applied to anything. Really Yeah, and I I think,
I mean Eric somehow managed to just sailed by. But
you know, when we talk to PETE students, we definitely
see that the schedule can be grueling, which is wonderful
that we have so many students who drive through. And
so when we look at the graduates that come, we
(24:26):
are to our to our business. We finished this, We're
looking at people that we know as seriously motivated UM
and and I've really shown just by going through this
program that it means a lot to them and that
they can work, and that they can they can drive through,
and that they have discipline. So I think when Joel
talks about discipline, it really starts the p text students
(24:48):
apart from traditional high school model students, because when you
step into the college realm of your course work, your
college teachers look at you and go, hey, I know
that your sixteen, but I'm not going to treat you
like your sixteen because you're being held to a different
standard here at the college. And I can't say, you
know what, they're sixteen, I'm going to grade them differently
(25:10):
because that's not the point of pe Tech. They're trying
to give you the skills that adults have so you
can go have a career outside of high school. And
it was really motivational to be able to see that
there were other people like me that I knew that
held the same values and disciplines as I did. Because
(25:31):
it made the high school. Part of my experience a
lot easier because there were people whose goals aligned with mine,
so it was a lot easier to make friends and
have study groups. So, Joel, let's come back to you.
What aspects of pe tech are you most proud of.
I'm really proud about his systemic nature. That it is
(25:53):
built into the education system. So what I mean is
it starts to contribute to the body of knowledge that
we have about like how do we think about the
education system in the future. So, uh yeah, So I
like the fact that that it's not like a private
program that you know, a company has created on the site.
(26:13):
It's actually built, really built in within the public education system,
where the responsibility still for for the curriculum and everything
is the same as everywhere else in the public education
sector and sector. And then the business is coming to
augment and add this alignment. The other effect of that
(26:34):
is that we are reaching in and actually making sure
that economic growth is inclusive. Um. So, if I just
look at our own company, we are firmly creating talent
and hiring talent from New York and we're making sure
that by the time we're looking for talent, we are
not just looking at those who have like uh, you know,
(26:56):
who've managed to go to Harvard and to m I T.
Which to make sure that we go and give access
to young people to be able to to you know,
get the qualifications that they need and build the skills
that they need to be able to get access as
to these jobs. UM. So the talent is there, and
the talent needs opportunity. So the other part of that
I'm really proud about it is that we are actually
(27:18):
creating opportunity for talented young people to be able to
bring that talent to benefit our business and that way
where we get to grow or when the business is
growing and then econ and the economy is growing, it's
it's more inclusive with p TEK. So there's only two
aspects that I'm really proud of. So, Eric and Shlia,
a couple of questions for you to um and we'll
(27:38):
start with you. So, Helia, what would you tell a
student who's considering going down this path? What would you
tell them about about pe TECH? I would tell them
it's one of the most rewarding experiences that they could
look back on as long as they're serious about it.
When I look at my experience in high school. I
(28:00):
would look at the students who didn't take petech as seriously,
and I would feel bad because they're missing out on
this great opportunity because they don't feel passionate about whatever
degree we were urging, whether it be cybersecurity, computer science.
So I would tell them, if you're not passionate about
(28:22):
the degree that you're p tech school offers, don't feel
like you have to apply because someone said this is
a good idea and you should do it. As long
as you're passionate about what you're learning about and you're
passionate about making a change in the STEM field, you'll
be okay. And there are gonna be so many people
you'll meet along the way that are going to help you,
(28:43):
whether it be academically or outside of that. In your internships,
you'll have mentors who will tell you, hey, this is
how you overcome this fear you have about public speaking.
I used to be really shy, like something like this
would have literally brought me to tears, how scared I
would have been. But my mentor was there and was like, hey,
(29:03):
baby steps, this is how we're going to accomplish being
more outspoken and being more of a people person and
if it wasn't for her, if it wasn't for petech,
I wouldn't be the person I am today. So I
would tell them be passionate and take it very seriously
because it's a once in a lifetime opportunity because after
(29:24):
high school, petech isn't an option. Awesome, what about you, Eric,
I would definitely tell them if this is the path
they want to take, because there are different pea techs
out there, like I think there are even some now
that are catered to the medical field. Um. So I
would tell them to make sure that's what you want
to do, because sometimes you get into it or sometimes
you're not really passionate about it and you end up
(29:46):
leaving or you end up not caring. Um. Oh. And
I would also tell them that, you know, definitely, um,
you're gonna have to take some time out of your
day to study, take some time out every day to
really just apply yourself because it is it is a workload, uh,
but it is rewarding at the end. So I would
say that the coolest part of pre tech is it's
(30:08):
gender inclusive. And I'm really proud of the efforts that
the pre tech model puts forward to include females in
STEM professions. I remember when I took my first college class,
the class before us that was in the room, there
were only two girls in the class that left, and
(30:29):
the rest of the class was boys. And when my
class entered the room, I looked around and I realized
there was actually a fifty split of girls and boys
in that room, and it felt really empowering to know
that me and my female classmates were going to be
a part of generation of STEMP professionals that younger girls
could look up to. And at my school we had
(30:52):
the she Can stem event every March for Women's History Month,
which was something I implemented during my time as an
entering and being able to look at middle school girls
in the school district and say, hey, I'm a girl
in a computer profession, which is really crazy considering any
time you ask them what an engineer looks like, what
(31:14):
a computer scientist looks like, they usually say someone like
Steve drops and no offense, but it's always a guy.
And being able to be a girl that younger girls
could look up to was really cool. And p tech
is the only platform I've ever seen give women a
chance to say, hey, I enjoy technology, and I'm really
(31:35):
good at what I do. So they gave us a
voice to be like, hey, I have something I can
bring to the table, and it made you feel comfortable
speaking out. So finally, Joel, what do you see for
the future for this program and for programs like it? UM,
I'll send of you my hopes. I hope that they
(31:55):
continue to to inspire mkas and education leaders about how
we should be looking. UM had continually improving our education
system going forward with the world that we have right
now and with the challenges that we we face. UM,
(32:17):
I then that's that's so, that's that's my hopes we have.
P tech is a mature model right now, is ten
years old, and so it is clear that it's working.
There has been a report that has just been published
by an independent party m NDRC, which has shown that
(32:37):
students are actually getting better outcoms as a resort of
of p tech. We're seeing as more schools mature than
more of our graduates going to college and getting hired.
Also in companies like our like ours and there's nobs
are growing. So from an impact perspective, we we we
know that it works UM, so we are really looking
(33:00):
for making sure that that we the publishing poblicy makers
get inspired by it and and and take it up
and implemented in as many places as possible. What I'm
excited about is that I think it's a privilege to
get to work on some of the problems that we're
working on as a company. We just by the nature
(33:22):
of being a large globle company, we get to see
really interesting problems that are brought to us via clients
that helped to change the world. And I think it's
wonderful that we are creating the opportunity for people who
are talented like as Failier and and Eric to be
able to bring their talents to work on these types
of problems. It's I think we should make sure that
(33:44):
that people inside to get the chance to work on
world changing things. And so I'm really excited by the
fact that we are working in areas where we're giving
students real opportunity to take that talents and contribute to
work problems that they can be really proud it off.
And so and then so I want to see pe
Tech in more states, in more schools, and just continue
(34:06):
to see the model grow both in the US and internationally.
All Right, well, thanks again to Joel so Halia and
Eric for chatting with us today. Again, if you want
to hear more from this series, you can look up
the episodes of our show as well as episodes of
tech Stuff labeled smart Talks. To learn more about smart Talks,
you can go to IBM dot com slash smart Talks,
(34:29):
and to read more about p tech you can check
out www dot PTech dot org. And of course, if
you want to hear other episodes of Stuff to Blow
Your Mind, you can find us wherever you get your
podcast huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer
Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in
touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other,
to suggest a topic for the future, or just to
(34:50):
say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff
to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your
Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
for My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff To Blow Your Mind News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Lamb
Joe McCormick
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.