Our May 2008 report Schools That Work found that New York City's long overlooked and under-funded career and technical education programs held great potential to improving citywide educational outcomes and ensuring a steady stream of skilled workers for local employers--and urged much stronger institutional support for CTE programs. We’re pleased to share that the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), Department of Education (DOE) and the City University of New York (CUNY) ran with this recommendation in a big way.

In 2010, the city started Scholars At Work, a small pilot program between SBS and DOE which connected 17 students from three CTE high schools with leading employers in the field. The program has grown significantly since then. In 2013, it placed over 100 students from ten participating high schools and the CUNY New York City College of Technology into internships in the high-demand transportation and manufacturing sectors. Participating employers included 15 businesses from the Brooklyn Navy Yard that hired interns for positions in production, fabrication, inventory management, design and various tech-related roles.

Participating students completed a 14-week paid internship during the spring 2013 academic semester with New York City employers in the transportation and manufacturing industries. Students were matched with transportation and manufacturing firms through the Workforce1 Industrial and Transportation Career Center in Jamaica, Queens, which has placed jobseekers in these sectors since opening in 2008.