Help for Young Workers is on the Way
In one of several job training programs run by CWE and funded by a new grant from the New York City Department of Small Business Services, young workers will undertake a six-week hospitality training for tour and event cruises and be placed into careers in the industry. The program was successfully piloted with New York City Department of Education students in 2019.
Young workers have always faced higher unemployment rates and more barriers to employment than older workers. For young people who have been involved in the justice system, getting settled in a career is even more difficult. As the Covid-19 pandemic upended industries and pushed unemployment rates higher, the challenges faced by young workers have only become worse.
To support young New Yorkers, the Consortium for Worker Education is partnering with the New York City Department of Small Business Services to launch License 2 Careers. The new two year program will work with young people ages 18-24 to build skills and place them into jobs in the unionized public and private transportation sector.
“The City is excited to partner with the Consortium for Worker Education on License 2 Careers, an innovative workforce development program that connects young adults to careers in the transportation sector by providing career readiness, training, job development, and apprenticeship services. In creating a supported path from learner’s permits and driver’s licenses to a Commercial Driver’s License, License 2 Careers will equip young adults with an in-demand credential for a high-growth sector that will qualify them for unionized jobs,” said David Fischer, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Youth Employment.
License 2 Careers continues the model developed by CWE in its New York Mechanic’s Apprenticeship Program (NYMAP) and the New York Alliance for Transport and Logistics Advancement Services (NYATLAS). Like these programs, License 2 Careers will center credentials and apprenticeships that lead to union employment, in partnership with the labor unions that represent workers in transportation industries and employers. CWE will convene these stakeholders to identify skills gaps and develop training programs.
Chad Ingram became a diesel mechanic through an apprenticeship administered by CWE and the Machinists Union.
NYATLAS and NYMAP surfaced a previously unrecognized problem facing New York City’s young workers: many do not have driver’s licenses.
“The first thing we want to address is this essential credential,” says John McDermott, Director for Strategic Partnership at the Consortium for Worker Education. “There are whole swaths of the economy that are closed off to workers who lack a driver’s license. It's not just transportation, its utilities, uniformed services, and airports as well. This is the first time that the City is funding driver's licenses as part of a job training grant and the first time we are including it as a part of our program.”
Bronx Community College Professor Clement Drummond addresses auto technician students in a CWE administered apprenticeship program in 2016.
CWE labor and employer partners can train and place young workers into quality careers with high wages and strong benefits.
Working with Transport Workers Union Local 100, CWE will introduce young workers to careers in mass transit and help them prepare for tests and applications to become a union transit worker.
CWE and Teamsters Local 814 will develop a 30-hour training series on art packing, moving, warehousing, and installation to prepare workers for careers at auction houses, like Sotheby’s and Christie’s, galleries, and art museums.
Cypress Hills EDC and CWE will offer Class B Commercial Driver’s License classes. A CDL immediately opens the door to employment in logistics, para-transit, the MTA, and utility companies.
Working with Hornblower and Spirit Cruises, CWE will offer a six-week hospitality training for tour and event cruises. The program is led by a Cordon Bleu trained master chef and was successfully piloted with New York City Department of Education students.
Each program will have a cadre of 15 to 20 students. All License 2 Careers participants will be offered driver’s license classes and will have registration fees and a vehicle provided for the test.
In 2019, students at Alfred E. Smith High School sign up for CWE's driver's license training.
Recruitment for License 2 Careers begins this month, with CWE partnering with community-based youth service providers across the five boroughs to reach unemployed and out-of-school youth. Department of Education Career and Technical Education and District 79 will connect alumni to the program and the Center for Employment Opportunities, the Osborne Center, and Project Hope will bring justice-involved youth to License 2 Careers.
All CWE training and placement programs help participants develop job readiness and workplace communication skills to help workers keep their new jobs. But License 2 Careers recognizes that worker preparation is only half of the job retention puzzle.
“To a greater extent, job retention is governed by working conditions, compensation and benefits – a demonstrable return on the participant’s investment in training,” says McDermott. “By focusing on unionized employment and ‘high road’ employers, we seek to offer the participants access to family sustaining wages and benefited employment, creating a long-term upward economic trajectory for themselves and their households.”