Obama Announces Plan To Make Education More Focused On Tech Skills

"To grow our middle class, our citizens must have access to the education and training that today’s jobs require." —President Obama #JobsNow

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The White House (@whitehouse) February 13, 2013

During the State of the Union, President Obama has announced a plan to make the American education system more focused on tech skills. While there weren’t many details in the short declaration, Obama cited New York’s P-Tech high-school as a model. P-Tech is a public high school that partnered with IBM to offer a 5-year associates degree, focused on vocational skills. Students stay one year longer in high school and get favor in the hiring process with IBM after graduation. Other P-Tech’s can partner with other technology companies.

P-Tech’s model has been so successful that at least one other state, Chicago, has already agreed to begin their own version of the school.

Readers can see a live feed of the State of the Union on YouTube here and follow the White House Twitter account, which is live-tweeting most of the speech.