Career Readiness and Success

In 2021 we funded Basta to launch a train-the-trainer program, Powered by Basta, to fill this gap. Basta is partnering with Uncommon Schools, Coney Island Prep, the Options Program and others to better serve their students and alumni in planning for and securing career-launching jobs.

Basta has demonstrated that it is well-equipped to set other organizations up for success. Basta’s flagship program is the Basta Fellowship, a ten-week long, cohort-based career readiness and job search program, that has a track record of success. Of the 500+ Fellows who have completed the program, 84% have secured a career pathway job within 6 months of program completion and 90% are retained in their first job for at least one year.

These organizations are extending the reach of Braven and creating an earned revenue model for Braven by paying to enroll their own alumni in a new program, BravenX.

Braven helps its students secure strong first jobs – mainly those that require a bachelor’s degree, are full-time and offer a competitive starting salary and pathways to promotion. Sixty-nine percent of Braven students have secured quality full-time jobs or enrolled in graduate school within six months of graduation.

It targets underserved and underemployed CUNY students and recent graduates.

COOP works with 200 plus digital employers like Google Partners to meet, interview and hire candidates. Google Partners are ad agencies that collectively spend billions of dollars on Google’s advertising platforms; finding qualified talent is a major barrier to growth in this industry that is also grappling publicly with a stark lack of diversity. COOP has similar partnerships with both Microsoft and Oath (formerly Yahoo!). Additionally, the advertising world is concentrated among five major holding companies: Publicis, IPG, WPP, Omnicom, and Dentsu, all of whom are moving from traditional to digital media; most of COOP graduates are employed within these networks.

COOP has crafted a unique model that capitalizes on its alumni working in the industry as well as the referral model that exists within the digital marketing industry. What COOP has been able to accomplish is to create “foot holds” within the digital media industry for CUNY graduates which has in effect created its own network, providing its graduates with social capital that enables them to participate in a labor market dominated by informal relationships.

The partnership between The Door and Gap/Old Navy is a prime example of our philosophy of supporting programs in which employers put real “skin in the game” in terms of job commitments based on objective criteria. These jobs are well suited to underserved youth and the wide range of employment opportunities and advancement potential is unique. The program, This Way ONward, involves extensive training and a guaranteed job (summer, vacation and permanent) for youth who successfully complete the program. The Gap and The Door committed to increasing the number of internship slots and employment placements available to Door youth in 2021. Old Navy is a good match for underserved young people because its customer base is receptive to younger salespeople, there are few entry-level skill requirements, flexible hours and numerous advancement opportunities.

Kura has developed a revenue-generating model and asks employer partners to pay for each student they hire. In collaboration with the Carnegie Foundation of New York, we supported the expansion of Kura’s cohort model which includes employer partners iNASDAQ, MoCaFi, and Proclivity. The average starting salary for students who have received offers is $90,000 (including bonuses) and equity.

We were the earliest supporter of Merit America, a flexible job training program that serves low-wage earners without college degrees. Building on its success in other regions, including D.C., Atlanta and Dallas, we are now supporting the launch of Merit America in New York City targeting two critical learner groups: young adults and parents who have at least a high school degree but no college degree. Merit is aligning students in one of three tracks (IT, Java and Data Analytics). Participants who successfully graduate from training gain industry recognized credentials. In addition to building philanthropic support, Merit America has developed three earned revenue streams: 1) employer hiring fees from talent acquisition teams, i.e. JP Morgan, Chase, Infosys, Accenture, and Better.com; 2) learner payment via a “Success Share Agreement” which asks learners who are placed into a job above a living wage to repay a subsidized portion of their training; and 3) upfront tuition paid by companies who want to upskill their workforce.

In 2021 we envisioned and funded a program to expand The New Jewish Home’s Geriatrics Career Development (GCD) program which educates and trains Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) through an externship at RiverSpring Living’s skilled nursing facility, the Hebrew Home at Riverdale. Both are non-profits. The GCD’s program provides wraparound support, comprehensive workforce training and youth development programming to young adults (ages 18-24) who are out of school/out of work and guarantees full-time employment and advancement opportunities to graduates. This program is crucial in not only expanding GCD’s model, but also informing The New Jewish Home’s replication strategy to address the acute shortage of geriatric health care workers by creating a talent pipeline model that will benefit additional healthcare facilities in New York City and beyond.

This new program creates a sustainable pathway for underrepresented youth to access careers in the IT and healthcare industries, including Desk Support, Helpdesk and Customer Service. Eighty eight percent of participants graduated from STRIVE’s program last year, 67% were placed in jobs and 71% retained employment after 12 months. STRIVE leverages partnerships with multiple local institutions, including LaGuardia Community College as a key training partner and Silicon Harlem and Mount Sinai as employer partners. The IT User Support Specialist training is tailored for young adults, ages 18 to 24, who have a high school diploma or equivalent. After completing the career readiness training workshop, LaGuardia Community College provides customized curriculum and qualified instructors for six weeks of occupational skills training.