The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association, is collaborating with IBM to help teens learn new technical and professional skills using IBM’s Open P-TECH platform at participating libraries. The free digital learning platform features interactive, multi-part courses on topics including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, blockchain, and design thinking, as well as resources for teachers and librarians for each topic.

There’s also a professional skills track, through which teens can take courses on career planning and exploration, resume building, financial literacy, job readiness, communication, and more. Upon completing courses (or specific portions of courses) users are awarded digital badges, which can be certified through the third-party credentialing system Credly to be included in college applications and resumes, or posted on social media and career networking sites such as LinkedIn.

IBM is offering free live, online training sessions for YALSA member librarians on how they can leverage Open P-TECH for teen programming, as well as how to use the platform’s administrative features to track participants’ progress or activate “P-TECH Connect” moderated discussion forums, for example. The next webinar training session will be August 26 at 3 p.m. EDT, and additional training sessions will be added based on demand.

The Open P-TECH platform is distinct from but related to Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), a program that launched in a public high school in Brooklyn, NY, with a STEM-focused curriculum developed through a partnership between IBM, the City University of New York–City Tech, and the New York City Department of Education. There, students have the opportunity to earn an associate’s degree while enrolled in high school. Since the school opened in 2011, the concept has expanded to 240 school partners in 28 countries, each of which involves a partnership between a high school, a community college, and an industry affiliate.

Launched by IBM in spring 2020, the Open P-TECH platform enables any school to supplement its STEM curriculum with free online courses geared toward career readiness. “Although long planned, its introduction was timely, as it happened at the beginning of the pandemic, when remote learning became a necessity,” said Ari Fishkind, external communications for IBM Corporate Social Responsibility. As of April, more than 295,000 learners and teachers are making use of Open P-TECH in more than 140 countries, with 29,000 digital badges issued in total, he added.

Open P-TECH “doesn’t only work with schools; we partner with nonprofit organizations as well to bring the classes and the coursework and the content to the most vulnerable populations globally,” Justina Nixon-Saintil, VP and global head of Corporate Social Responsibility for IBM, told LJ. “We do focus on bringing it into schools—training teachers and making sure students have access. But there are also a lot of after-school programs [and] weekend programs where we believe the content is very valuable, especially to the communities that we try to reach. The partnership with YALSA came out of this. This gives millions of students the opportunity to access self-paced courses, and we’re going to train instructors and librarians to be able to guide these students.”

Tammy Dillard-Steels, executive director, YALSA, said that she had heard about the recently launched platform prior to discussions with IBM, but “I didn’t know it could cater to librarians. We thought it was just for teachers.” She now says the self-paced courses are a good fit with many after-school programs. “The plus is that, even though libraries are not a classroom setting…the young adult librarians that I’ve worked with all have structured programs. They have structured groups of teens that they work with on a daily basis. So even though it’s not a formal 8 to 3 school setting, after school is just as important for programs that our librarians provide for youth…. People tend to forget how much their library does for the community when school is out.”

Nixon-Saintil also emphasized the self-directed nature of the courses, noting that “librarians will be trained to guide students through the process—how do they access the content, how do they achieve a badge—but it’s completely self-paced…. It gives students an opportunity to explore content in areas that they may not have access to in school. But it’s self-directed…it allows them to go deeper into certain areas that they’re interested in.”

She added that IBM is a believer in “new collar” jobs, a term coined by former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, referring primarily to self-trained tech industry workers who have credentials other than four-year degrees in computer-related fields. “You don’t need a four-year degree to move into a meaningful job,” Nixon-Saintil said. “If you have a badge or credential, and you have deep knowledge of a content area, you can be successful. The four-year degree has left a lot of underrepresented groups out of the workforce.” In addition to the Open P-TECH platform designed for teens, IBM offers its free SkillsBuild digital learning platform for advanced students and adults looking to enhance their technology skills.

Last week, IBM kicked off the IBM Summer SkillsBuild Challenge, which will run through July 30, Fishkind said. Featuring virtual content for students and weekly prizes for completed tasks, the challenge is designed to require little or no intervention from librarians or teachers. Participants are encouraged to share key takeaways and connect with peers through the P-TECH Connect moderated forums.

“What’s great about YALSA is their focus on supporting students in communities that are underserved,” Nixon-Saintil said. “Those are the same communities that we are trying to reach. We also know, over the summer, a lot of students are going to be playing catch-up—they need to enhance certain math skills, certain science skills. This is a way that they can access that content and feel more confident in those subjects. And I think that’s a big part of what YALSA is offering as well…. Our focus here with Open P-TECH, all of the content we’re developing, all of the training, is really focused on communities that need it the most—the ones that have been left out of STEM workforce, the ones that have been marginalized—and this partnership with YALSA is going to enable us to reach those communities.”