The Hispanic Star, an initiative dedicated to promoting opportunity and representation for Hispanics, announced today it is collaborating with IBM to expand access to education and careers through P-TECH schools in predominantly Hispanic communities. The Hispanic Star will focus on increasing the number of mentoring, paid internships and entry-level employment offered to P-TECH students from underserved populations.
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This Hispanic Star effort falls under its Hispanic Promise initiative and increases US employers’ access to tech-skilled Hispanic talent. As companies and society become more technology-driven, ensuring diversity in the workplace is critical when developing innovations to make them relevant to all consumers. Diversity is also critical for companies to effectively integrate with their local communities.
P-TECH is a public school model to address education and workforce development challenges built on integrated partnerships between educators and industry leaders, and is designed to strengthen the education-to-career pipeline for underserved youth. The program enables students, particularly from underserved communities, to earn both a high school diploma and a no-cost associate degree aligned to industry needs, and workplace experiences, including paid mentorship and internships within six years or less.
The Hispanic Star’s mission is to advance equality, diversity and inclusion of Hispanics – as critical components of the future economic prosperity of the United States. The country’s growth will depend on having Hispanic employees who are prepared to perform the jobs of a high-tech economy. By teaming up to advance P-TECH’s mission, Hispanic Star aims to strengthen regional economies and disadvantaged populations with a workforce better prepared for “new collar” jobs – skilled, tech positions that don’t necessarily require a traditional, four-year college degree.
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“Though Hispanics represent over 25% of the nation’s youth and 40% of the workforce, they make up only 5% of jobs in the tech, manufacturing and health industries”, said Claudia Romo Edelman, the creator of the Hispanic Star. “By helping to recruit new Industry Partners to the P-TECH network, the Hispanic Promise aims to diversify and expand the number of mentorships, internships and apprenticeships available to underserved populations, many of which are Hispanic.”
The Hispanic Star will invite the 170 signatories of its Hispanic Promise initiative to join in this effort to expand industry involvement in P-TECH schools. As a founder of the P-TECH model, IBM will provide the core expertise and logistical support to the newly recruited companies who are interested in supporting P-TECH schools and students.
“In the U.S., 60.6 million Hispanics, most below 35 years old, are fueling the economic and talent pool growth in the country, and yet only 4% make it to executive positions,” said Joel Mangan, IBM Executive Director, P-TECH. “P-TECH helps to address the lack of diversity and inclusion in many industries since the model encourages all students to succeed through one-on-one mentoring, workplace visits, and paid internships that give young people the ability to visualize how they can achieve a successful career.
The Hispanic Star will also be adding Open P-TECH – a program launched by IBM to equip young people and educators with foundational knowledge about topics like cybersecurity, AI and cloud computing – to its kit of digital tools designed to build and improve the skills, employability and retention of today’s Hispanic workforce.
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