NY education, business leaders tackling skills gap

New York education and business leaders will brainstorm this week to address the conflicting problems of unemployment and unfilled jobs. WAMC’s Dave Lucas reports.

A conference planned by the state Education Department will focus on how to prepare students to land jobs at companies like IBM, whose leaders describe a "skills gap" separating the availability of workers from good jobs waiting to be filled.

IBM and the Business Council of New York State are co-sponsoring Friday's conference in Albany. It comes as New York is moving toward adopting two alternative high school diplomas, one focused on science, technology, engineering and math, collectively known as STEM, and the other on career and technology education, or CTE.

Education Commissioner John King says it's hoped the conference inspires collaboration between education and the business community.

© 2012 AP