STEAM - Vocational Skills-building for Disadvantaged Youth

Youth comprise 25% of the global working-age population, yet are 3x more likely to be unemployed than adults, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. By increasing their employability through building STEAM skills, students will be able to break into the labor market and create long-term growth for economic stability.

The last decade's global economic crisis had a particularly high impact on youth. Because of the fallen demand for labor and rising unemployment in many communities, small enterprises have suffered, the informal economy has expanded, and reverse migration has been increasing. 

For young people, unemployment for significant periods can decrease their chances of building economic stability for the future. 

Our goal is to create financial stability for students through creating a STEAM-based curriculum supplemented by workplace experience, internships, mentorship, and a community support network to ensure that students have a well-defined path leading to employment after graduation. 

A policy brief released by the International Labour Office in 2009 advocated for increasing employability of disadvantaged youth, citing the significance of the global youth unemployment trend as an indicator that educational pathways for youth were highly undervalued. 

In 2016, President Obama cited the Pathways to Technology Early College High School as a leading innovator in global education. The school operates on a non-conventional model, allowing students to take longer to graduate while supplementing traditional education with STEM resources, internship experience, and an Associates Degree upon graduation. 

The majority-low socioeconomic school holds a ~95% graduation rate.

The goal for the first phase is to distribute a curriculum and 6 year plan to pilot secondary schools. Teachers will undergo professional development to better understand the integration of STEAM-based educational techniques, as well as working alongside professional mentors. 

The students will have the opportunity to enroll in early college - after completing their high school requirements, they will work towards an Associate's Degree, after which they will be able to work professionally. The impact will be 100% graduation and employment for students at pilot schools, who will then be encouraged to return and mentor future classmates.

Track graduation rate and retention rate through annual reports - 90+% graduation and retention rate

Diversity indicators through annual enrollment data - 50/50 gender ratio and equal representation of socioeconomic classes, races

Internship and mentorship surveys, end-of-year entrepreneurship projects - 90+% employment rate

This solution breaks down the traditional schooling model used in many countries, instead opting for a student-based approach. Utilizing technologies to help track student performance, as well as to encourage open communication between students, mentors, families, and teachers, Bridge to Technology can cultivate a positive environment for students to grow academically, creatively, and professionally. By utilizing a 9-14 model for secondary education, students will graduate with workplace experience and a degree, thus increasing the impact that they can have in the workplace or in higher education.

Computational thinking is emphasized from the start of the educational pathway, with STEAM-based approaches encouraging hands-on and collaborative learning. 

In end-of-year entrepreneurial innovation challenges, students utilize the concepts they learned in the classroom to develop a solution to a global problem, learning teamwork, creativity, and collaboration skills that they will later apply in their internships. 

Additionally, by creating diverse teams in the classroom, and through building a community, students are more likely to feel as though they belong and thus continue along their educational path, pursuing future success as opposed to exiting from formal education.

The first pilot schools will operate on a combined application and lottery system. Target communities will be disadvantaged students, however the classes will be selected in order to maintain a diverse student body. Furthermore, classes and curriculum will be made freely available to those not able to attend the schools in order for teachers to incorporate the new learning models into their own classrooms. Because the schools will operate as charter or public schools, they will be free to attend for students interested in enrolling, and will provide materials and books necessary for the classroom.

Our plan is to raise funds from investors such as Ashoka Ventures, as well as to apply for grants and to crowd-fund in order to raise the necessary funds to open and operate our first pilot schools. We plan to hold fundraisers and conferences for educators in order to raise money to help provide students with the necessary educational staff and materials to successfully earn their degrees and find available work in the professional industry. As we grow our organization, we plan on working alongside large corporations such as IBM (which currently sponsors P-TECH), Intel, and Google to find engineers local to the schools to mentor students. In addition, we will work alongside government educational department to provide resources and funding to help continue expanding our efforts.

At the moment, the model has worked successfully in a number of New York City schools, but deploying internationally will prove a challenge without staff who are able to routinely travel or live in the countries and communities where these schools operate. As we expand, the goal is to hire leads from countries where our pilot schools will be operating. In addition, maintaining momentum and ensuring a high graduation rate is crucial, and given the low graduation rates for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, working with the students and families will also be a challenge we will work on.

https://www.ptechnyc.org/

https://www.afsenyc.org/

By become a Solver, we have access to countless innovative experts across education, STEM, and research fields who will offer insights into how to increase our reach, grow our pilots, and make an even larger and more effective impact on our students. With a background in technology, education, arts education, non-profits, and entrepreneurship, we can provide mutual benefit to Solve through networks with government and private organization, as well as exchange ideas for how to scale our impact internationally. 

We are currently affiliated with the National Principals Leadership Institute, Lincoln Center Education, the New York Department of Education, Google Education, and Facebook inspirED.