P-TECH Comes to Colorado

Last summer, while you were hiking in the mountains and enjoying the sunbaked, green grass of Cheesman Park, the educational program known as P-TECH arrived in Colorado and its effects on all educational institutions throughout the state, including Pickens Technical College, could be profound. Governor John Hickenlooper took a break from his summer beer tasting activities to sign the bill approving P-TECH for the state after it was approved by the state legislature (because that’s how bills work). P-TECH stands (loosely) for Pathways in Technology Early College High School and its goal is to unite school districts, community colleges, and employers—especially in the booming tech industry here—across the state to provide young people with a clear path from high school and college to a career.

This legislation seeks to shrink the so-called “workplace gap” that many companies in the state are experiencing when it comes to qualified workers. There aren’t enough recent college or high school graduates who are qualified to start at an information technology company, for example, and these companies are scrambling to hire employees they can train to help them grow and sustain this economic expansion we’ve seen in Colorado for the past several years.

Pickens Technical College, as a technical college in Colorado, is included in the positive changes that P-TECH will bring about. Now more than ever, it is in collaboration with employers in the technology industry, as well as the healthcare and energy industries in the state, to match students and graduates with careers. This is good for PTC, good for the state of Colorado because it keeps jobs and companies right here, and most importantly, good for you because if you’re trying to learn how to break into a rising industry like Information Technology, there has never been a better time to find a career. There has also never been a time in history when something called “Information Technology” can berth so many careers. I doubt cavemen tried to store smoke signals in any kind of database.

The advent of P-TECH means that institutions like PTC can place their students directly in growing industries faster and work with both high schools and employers to match curriculum and jobs with increasingly well-qualified individuals who can help the state’s economy grow and mature for years to come. Thousands of students throughout the state at the high school, technical and community college levels can benefit from the partnerships that P-TECH promises and the opening of avenues to college if desired and career afterward.

The bottom line is, now is the time to enroll in PTC and take advantage of these new partnerships to get your career off the ground. Take advantage of not only the highly specialized instruction here at PTC for careers in some of the fastest-growing industries on the planet but also the increased collaboration between PTC and employers looking for qualified candidates in the Denver metro area and the state.