Albany

It's a sad and familiar refrain: Too few high school or college graduates have the skills that are needed to participate in the 21st-century economy.

Educators and business leaders hope the latest approach to address this skills gap, which includes the promise of a free two-year college degree, will take root in a big way.

Representatives of companies like IBM, as well as SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher and state Business Council President Heather Briccetti on Wednesday came together at SUNY's College of Nanoscale Science and Technology to hail the initiative, known as P-Tech, or Pathways in Technology and Early College High School.

A handful of P-Tech schools have opened across the nation in recent years, including Brooklyn's Pathways in Technology High, which hosted President Barack Obama during a 2013 visit.

Starting in September, the program is taking a big leap in New York with an expansion in 16 schools across the state, including Troy and Ballston Spa, where an earlier P-Tech program will be expanding.

Those schools won grants in a competition last year offered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.

Funded by the state at $28 million over seven years, ninth-graders starting this September will graduate with associate degrees six years later.

Those two-year college degrees will come at no cost to the students. And they should be equipped for jobs at places like the GlobalFoundries computer chip plant, Lockheed-Martin, GE Healthcare or Bombardier, which makes items ranging from jet aircraft to trains.

Another option will be for graduates to complete their four-year degrees with two years already under their belts.

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P-Tech expansion, free degrees meant to improve career paths