U.S. President Barack Obama wants high schools in America to focus more on high-tech. In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Obama called for American schools to "create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering and math – the skills today’s employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future."

Obama mentioned two models, one abroad and one at home. Overseas, he praised Germany, where students graduate "with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges." In America, Obama singled out schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, where a collaboration between the New York Public Schools, the City University of New York, and IBM gives students a chance to "graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering," he said.

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"We need to give every American student opportunities like this," Obama said. To do that, the President announced a new challenge "to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy."

This challenge will create incentives for schools to create classes that focus more on science, technology, engineering and math — the so called STEM. For Obama, those are the skills that "today’s employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future."

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