A tech leader partners with public schools to close the STEM skills gap.

Plenty of corporations have bemoaned the shortage of highly skilled American workers. Few have gone as far to address it as IBM. Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-Tech, launched in Brooklyn in 2011. Its six-year program blends the traditional four-year high school experience with two years of college, so graduates earn associate degrees in a STEM field. The approach has proven so popular that some 300 other corporate partners have adopted it, helping launch 70 P-Tech schools in the U.S., Australia, and Morocco. And IBM’s own P-Tech schools—it’s now the corporate partner at eight—are funneling graduates into its workforce. Of 100 graduates so far, 11 now work at IBM; the majority of the rest are pursuing four-year degrees.