ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, August 24, 2020 - IBM announced the launch of Open P-TECH, a free digital education experience platform, in Pakistan, with the goal of equipping young people and educators with knowledge about cybersecurity, AI and cloud computing, plus professional skills like resume writing and interviewing.

In the World Economic Forum’s latest Future of Jobs Report on workforce trends in 20 economies, over 42% of all jobs will change significantly by 2022 and require new skills such as analytics or design thinking and soft skills like complex problem solving. To address this, both public and private sector partners need to collectively come together to provide students with the academic, technical and professional skills -- such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and collaboration -- required to compete in the 21st Century economy.

To meet this need, IBM launched P-TECH in 2011 to address education and workforce development challenges. P-TECH, now in 24 countries and 220 schools, helps to strengthen regional economies and underserved populations with a workforce better prepared for "new collar" jobs -- skilled, tech positions that don't necessarily require a traditional, four-year college degree.

"Technology is transforming the job market and what matters most in today’s workforce is having the right skills. Many of today’s most in-demand tech jobs simply require the right skills, and not always a bachelor’s degree," said Ghazanfar Ali, Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan. "This is why IBM believes that the public, private and not-for-profit sectors should partner with one another to accelerate workplace preparedness. Though an agile model such as Open P-TECH, we are able to upskill future talent, deliver essential technical and professional learning and equip the workforce in Pakistan for emerging "New Collar Jobs", while supporting important nation-wide initiatives, such as Digital Pakistan.”

The main differentiators of the platform are: its global free availability across Pakistan and the globe, digital badges system that will allow students to have external recognition, possibility to extend learning beyond the classroom wall, and a dashboard to track progress. The platform is available for everyone, register here: https://www.ptech.org/open-p-tech/.

"Education should be adapted to a technological world that’s different from the one we received 20 years ago," said Joel Mangan, Executive Director, P-TECH, IBM Corporate Social Responsibility."The private and the public sectors need to work together to change the paradigm around education models and learning methods in order to give next generation the bright future they deserve."