Pairing the Needs of Business and Workers

Students training to become radiation technologists at Long Island College Hospital in a Trust-supported program that helps people qualify for good jobs. Clair Bush, The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

2008

It's difficult to get a good job in New York without at least an associate's degree. After all, unemployment is on the rise, the steady decline of manufacturing jobs continues, and the recession is taking its toll. But there are well-paying jobs with opportunity for advancement in health care, transportation, and information technology.

Over the next decade, City employers will need hundreds of thousands of trained workers to fill new jobs and replace retirees. But there are too few job-seekers who have the necessary skills, and too many people with little education or with skills in jobs that no longer exist.

In 2001, a group of funders created The New York City Workforce Development Fund in The Trust to improve the City's approach to helping people get on—and move up—the career ladder. Since then, the Fund has become an important voice in shaping workforce development policy in the City and State.

In 2006, the Fund started a successful sector-based training initiative: Industries identify jobs they needed filled and work with training programs that teach people the skills to fill them. The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty is training 119 individuals as paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and radiation technologists in one of the pilot programs. Because of the project's success, the City is opening several centers focused on specific industries. The first opened in Queens in the summer of 2008, and will train 650 participants for transportation jobs at LaGuardia and JFK airports and elsewhere.

With part of a 2008 $125,000 grant, the Fund commissioned Public/Private Ventures and the Aspen Institute to help nine more City employment organizations work with employers and learn how to manage these sector-based job-training programs.

The Fund also worked with the State to make additional funding available for City groups that help low-skilled job seekers become eligible for training in careers where they can advance. With our support, the Fund continued to spur innovation and investment in workforce development to provide more people with the tools to earn a better living.