A new P-TECH school was announced today by Australia’s Education Minister Simon Birmingham at Cecil Andrews Senior High School. Employers partners committed to the school include Austal Shipping Australia and a consortia of local employers.
‘It is great to see such a dynamic and high tech company joining the P-TECH Pathways in Technology STEM initiative that will open up a wide range of career path opportunities for young students in the region’ said Skilling Australia Foundation Chairman Fred Maddern OBE. Around 75% of Australia’s fastest growing industries require STEM skills, but unfortunately there is a gap between the needs of industry and the skills students are acquiring in traditional education models. He added ‘partnerships between schools and industry provide opportunities for students to engage with the world of work and better understand the relevance of their learning to jobs and post-school pathways’.
Source: http://cecilandrewsshs.wa.edu.au/p-tech-pilot-school/
Minister for Education Simon Birmingham with Principal Ms Stella Jinman
The first 2 Australian pilots in Geelong and Ballarat commenced in January 2016 and have attracted strong interest from local students wanting to explore meaningful and relevant career pathways. These initial sites are supported by employer partners in Geelong including Barwon Health, GMHBA, Bendigo Bank, Opteon and Tribal Campus. Other Australian schools have been announced this month include Western Sydney, the NSW Central Coast and Newcastle.
IBM, who co founded the first US P-Tech school in 2011 is also the industry partner in Ballarat, Victoria. The US model has been featured in Time magazine, Harvard Case Studies and media nationally and internationally. The model is going from strength to strength in the US. Just this week, 2 new schools were announced in Baltimore Maryland.