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Mayor de Blasio Announces Expanded Tech Talent Pipeline to Train 1,700 New Yorkers Each Year for High-Paying, Career-Track Tech Jobs

May 18, 2016

New commitments from major colleges, expanded fellowships will triple number of students reached and placed in good tech jobs, including as web developers earning $65,000 and above

Learn more about joining the Tech Talent Pipeline at techtalentpipeline.nyc

NEW YORK––Mayor de Blasio today announced new commitments and expanded training programs designed to equip New Yorkers with 21st century skills and connections to employment as part of the administration’s NYC Tech Talent Pipeline initiative. The expanded and upgraded programs have been designed to serve over an additional 1,700 New Yorkers, building upon the Tech Talent Pipeline’s existing work to serve 750 participants through its 10 existing programs.

“This is one of the fastest growing sectors in our economy, and it’s a new path to the middle class. New Yorkers coming out of our Tech Talent Pipeline will have the skills they need to be a part of it,” said Mayor de Blasio. “These new commitments and expanded programs will help us equip even more New Yorkers across the five boroughs with 21st century skills.”

“Creating quality jobs for New Yorkers and quality talent for the City’s businesses is essential to a thriving 21st century economy - and within just a year, New York City’s Tech Talent Pipeline Industry Partnership is delivering on this promise,” said Gregg Bishop, Commissioner of the Department of Small Business Services. “Not only is the City doing its part to build this specialized workforce by tripling our investment in programs for computer science students, but our industry and education partners have made unprecedented commitments to training and hiring a new generation of highly trained tech professionals. Once again, I’d like to thank our partners for dedicating critical resources to building a world-class talent pipeline for New York City’s rapidly growing tech industry.”

Thus far, the Tech Talent Pipeline has garnered: over 150 employer partners committed to developing solutions, expanding job opportunities and defining the needs of New Yorkers; 15 New York City colleges that have pledged to working with the City and employers to change and enhance student preparation to meet workforce needs; more than 350 employer hours of curriculum design and delivery to ensure education and training providers are equipping New Yorkers with relevant needs; and roughly $5 million invested in the initiative in Fiscal Year 2016.

Currently, over 500 New Yorkers are in or about to start training and connection to employment, and over 200 New Yorkers have completed the Tech Talent Pipeline training, including 88 New York City Web Development Fellows. Of these 88 Web Development Fellows, 84 percent have been able to secure high-quality employment.

Together with industry partners such as Kickstarter, Foursquare and Viacom, the Tech Talent Pipeline has already developed a slate of 10 new and expanded tech training and education solutions designed to equip New Yorkers with tech related skills and connections to employment. Today’s announcements reflect further momentum in building the network of partners and commitments needed to bring this impact to scale, as additional academic and employer partners are bringing their own resources to the table.

“Foursquare is a global company that is proud to call New York City home,” said Jeff Glueck, CEO of Foursquare. “We are committed not just to growing our business here, but also to continuing to help develop a local pool of great engineering talent. Through our work with the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline, our engineers are improving curricula and creating job opportunities for New Yorkers."

“LinkedIn’s vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce," said Nicole Isaac, head of U.S. Public Policy for LinkedIn. "To achieve our vision, we’re building the world’s first Economic Graph – a digital map of the global economy. We're sharing labor market insights from this Economic Graph with governments to help them improve their economies. That's why we're so excited that the insights we've continued to share with the Tech Talent Pipeline have helped New York City invest more strategically to help workers acquire in-demand skills."

Kickstarter co-Founder and CEO Yancey Strickler said, "At Kickstarter, we're building a team of people from diverse backgrounds because we value an inclusive, vibrant culture and a more creative workforce. The New York City Tech Talent Pipeline Initiative makes it easier for companies like ours to connect with talented people from a range of backgrounds, and we're proud to be a partner in this important endeavor."

Some of these new and expanded programs include:

Increased Investments in Higher Education Pathways

  • Tripling Successful Industry-Designed Tech Talent Pipeline Programs for CUNY Computer Science Students: In the coming year, the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline will triple its investment in CUNY Tech Prep, an industry-designed course for computer science majors in the CUNY senior college system. Developed and delivered with the CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development and industry leaders, CUNY Tech Prep provides students with an opportunity to learn applied skills at no cost through an intensive, full-stack web application sprint, followed by a semester of additional project-based coursework and a connection to tech jobs post-graduation.
  • Today, 15 New York City colleges – members of the Tech Talent Pipeline academic Council – are making their own commitments to work more closely with the City and industry partners to further develop pathways for New Yorkers to tech careers. Some commitments include:
    • Borough of Manhattan Community College, as a result of program assessment that included an industry review of curriculum within the Computer Information Systems Department, is in the process of revising degree requirements and course content, including by infusing more project-based, group work into the curriculum.
    • City College will leverage resources across its Computer Science, Career & Professional Development Institute, and Continuing & Professional Studies to better prepare students for, and connect them to jobs in the NYC tech ecosystem. Among the solutions City College is committed to delivering in the year ahead is the launch of a new co-op program that will allow computer science majors to earn credit for 8-month work rotations at tech companies.
    • Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia University, hosts a wide range of classes and extracurricular initiatives, including hackathons and student groups, to prepare a leading tech talent workforce. As a result of employer feedback facilitated by Tech Talent Pipeline, Columbia Engineering is preparing to introduce a new extracurricular programming project at the beginning of the Fall semester. This project, which would be defined in partnership with industry collaborators, would allow students to: 1) engage in hands-on, practical, and publicly visible projects to tackle complex problems, and 2) to deepen their experience in working in groups.
    • Cornell Tech is continuing to expand upon its guiding emphasis on industry engagement and applied learning. In addition to bringing industry professionals into the classroom as Startup Studio and company challenge contributors, in March, Cornell Tech partnered with CUNY, Verizon, and other tech leaders to launch Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship in NY to prepare young women for careers in technology.
    • Hunter College is partnering with NYS to develop a CS teacher certification that includes a pathway for tech professionals to teach in NYC schools. Hunter is also launching a new themed undergraduate cohort for up to 20 students who will receive merit scholarships and fast-track into the Computer Science major. Informed by a new advisory board of tech industry leaders and experts, these students will benefit from additional industry-informed experiential learning, professional development, and tech employment opportunities following graduation.
    • John Jay College is expanding its virtual internship program to expose a larger number of Computer Science and Information Security majors to real-world, applied challenges designed in partnership with the Cybersecurity Workforce Alliance representing a diversity of industries and roles.
    • LaGuardia Community College is in the process of creating a new cybersecurity degree and non-degree program to address industry feedback regarding deficits in existing programs. As development moves forward, LaGuardia will continue to engage with industry partners through, and outside of, the Tech Talent Pipeline, to support efforts around curriculum development, connection to industry, and faculty engagement.
    • Lehman College is forming a tech talent advisory board, tasked with working with industry to consult on curricular matters and provide feedback on courses and course content. Among other responsibilities, the board will also assist the Lehman Career Services Office with career enhancement activities by bringing industry leaders to campus to conduct mock interviews for our students, and provide feedback on resumes and portfolios.
    • Macaulay Honors College is launching a “data science pipeline” program, designed to prepare students for careers in the emerging field of data science. Informed by an advisory group of industry professionals this initiative in the year ahead will provide a pilot cohort of students with market-informed coursework, professional mentoring and experiential learning opportunities designed to prepare them for myriad data-supported careers.
    • NYC College of Technology – continues to expand innovative alliances with industry partners across sectors. In the months ahead, City Tech will leverage those partnerships to launch a new cohort of the Tech Jobs Academy (TJA), a four month, no cost intensive tech training program developed together with Microsoft, and also build on the Brooklyn Tech Triangle Internship Program (BTTIP) which pairs tech savvy City Tech students with small businesses to support their technology needs and thus foster their growth.
    • NYIT is planning to expand its Industry Advisory Board membership to further engage NYC high tech businesses in the development of its curriculum and degree programs to make them more relevant to the needs of industry. Currently, the board is instrumental in creating opportunities for industry professionals to work with students to develop projects for capstone design courses, simulate customer interaction and provide feedback to students that will better prepare them to pursue careers in tech fields.
    • NYU Tandon School of Engineering is committed to partnering with the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) consortium to launch a multi-year integrated engineering curriculum, emphasizing project-based, interdisciplinary education starting in the Fall of 2016. To complement this work, NYU Tandon is also committed to opening a MakerSpace where students can work on prototyping solutions to real-world, industry informed challenges.
    • Pace University and the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems will leverage the introductions facilitated by the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline to expand opportunities for our students. Specifically, Pace will commit to building industry partnerships that will result in curricular innovation, new internship and career opportunities for Pace students, and innovative avenues for experiential learning such as industry-specific hackathons and client research with students and faculty.
    • Pratt Institute is utilizing employer feedback to further refine curriculum, bolster marketing, and emphasize real client opportunities for its new Master of Science in Information Experience Design (IXD) program and Data Analysis & Visualization Master’s program, which will begin in the Fall 2016 semester. Pratt will also utilize industry input to further supplement the GIS and Design Certificate program curriculum currently offered through the Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative (SAVI).
    • Queens College is committed to recruiting and serving a second cohort of QC students to be placed in technical internships at tech-related businesses throughout NYC through the TTP Residency program. The College is also committed to learning from employer and student feedback and sharing those insights with faculty and staff in order to develop the most appropriate learning experiences for our students. Examples of informed practice may include, student-led seminars, a credit bearing internship course, expanding the involvement of industry professionals as instructors or guest lecturers, and professional development opportunities for Computer Science, Math, Physics and other interested faculty and staff.

Expanded Accelerated Pathways to Training and Employment

  • Expanding the NYC Web Development Fellowship: Opening more doors to New Yorkers beyond a four-year degree, the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline will expand the NYC Web Development Fellowship, which, in partnership with the Flatiron School, has equipped over 120 New Yorkers with skills and connections to employment as web developers earning over $65,000 at companies like Kickstarter, Goldman Sachs, Viacom, and Foursquare. Interested training partners will be able to apply through a Request for Proposals, available at: www.nyc.gov/sbs.

Employer-Led Training

  • Five Companies Launch Beyond Coding 2.0: American Express, Foursquare, Stack Overflow, Trello and Tumblr are teaming up again to offer a second year of Beyond Coding, a free 8-week summer program that gives emerging computer programmers in New York City the professional skills needed to help them succeed in their first job working with code. This year, the program will serve an estimated 100 New Yorkers through a partnership with Code to Work.

Helping to Inform Training City-Wide

  • LinkedIn Provides Update on In-Demand Skills: building on the first-ever analysis of NYC’s 3.1 million LinkedIn members conducted last year, LinkedIn has updated its assessment of the top in-demand tech skills sought by employers across the five boroughs. In addition to reinforcing the demand for web and mobile development, the new data reveals an increase in the percentage of NYC members with in-demand and general tech skills.

New Hiring and Job commitments
Industry partners are also joining forces with the City to expand training and job opportunities for New Yorkers while growing the NYC tech talent pool.

  • Within the past few months, new and returning employer partners have continued to expand job opportunities across the tech talent pool, hiring TTP graduates into in-demand full-time positions and internships. Jobs include web and mobile developers and software engineers at the following companies:

    • Bounce Exchange, Droga5, Kickstarter, Time, Inc., Animoto, CrowdTwist, Eikos Partners, Genome, Global Poverty Project, Hoost, LearnVest, MediaMath, Modco, RMS, Rozilo, Shapeways, Simple Therapy, SportsGuru, SportsRecruits, The Trade Desk, Viacom, XO Group

"America's new economy requires technological training for good paying jobs," said Council Member Ben Kallos. "Mayor de Blasio's expansion of the Tech Talent Pipeline will serve to bolster New York City's experience pool and afford participants the opportunity for well-paying jobs that move our city's economy forward."

“I am thrilled that Queens College can contribute its academic strengths to this ambitious cross-sector partnership in order to ensure that New Yorkers are recruited and trained to enter one of the fastest growing and highest paying sectors in New York City,” said Queens College President Felix Matos Rodriguez. “I look forward to our continued involvement in this visionary agenda to equip the City's workforce to enter critical, higher-wage jobs with advancement opportunities in the technology sector.”

“Hunter has a long tradition of training educators and preparing our students to excel in the real world, a world that, increasingly, is defined by advanced technological know-how,” said Jennifer Raab, President of Hunter College. “We are proud to be working closely with the NYS Education Department to develop pathways to a new certification for Computer Science teachers. In addition we're especially excited about having recruited a former high school teacher who is one of the top leaders in CS education to help shape our efforts to fast track the tech talents of the future into new, cutting edge careers.”

"It is entirely fitting that just days before the NYU Tandon School of Engineering holds its 161st Commencement Ceremony that we are publicly committing to tech employers across New York City to graduate the most qualified students for jobs of the next century,” said Katepalli Sreenivasan, Dean of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. "By adapting our curricula to encompass more group projects and hand-on learning in our new on-campus MakerSpace, Tandon engineers will continue to enhance the innovation economy and create technology in service of society. I thank the Deputy Mayor for her incisive emphasis on the importance of the Tech Talent Pipeline.”

"As the tech industry continues to be an increasingly important part of our economy, we're constantly updating our programs to reflect the latest industry trends and hiring needs," said LaGuardia Community College President Gail O. Mellow. "The Mayor's Tech Talent Pipeline Academic Council has helped us connect with employers that are helping to inform our new Cybersecurity Program, as well as revisions to our tech curricula."

“At Cornell Tech, we are committed to building and diversifying the tech talent base in New York City, and we are proud to partner with the de Blasio administration in this effort," said Dan Huttenlocher, Dean of Cornell Tech. "Our students have regular and ongoing engagement with local companies and are creating jobs through spinning out their own startups. Cornell Tech is now working with a dozen local schools at the K-12 level to increase access to tech education, and we recently announced a new initiative with CUNY and industry partners – Women in Technology & Entrepreneurship in NY – to increase the number of women working in technology, a program we believe could serve as a model nationally."

“City Tech commends the City’s Tech Talent Pipeline initiative and Small Business Services for the continued support of a partnership that provides our tech-savvy students with invaluable access to business and industry experience and allows them to develop and apply their creative skills in meaningful ways," said Russell K. Hotzler, President of City Tech. "The program's success underscores the essential role that public-private partnerships play in developing a skilled workforce.”

 

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