NYC career portal offers path to employment to some out-of-work New Yorkers
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Photo via SBS
By David Brand
Jack Lye was working as a veterinary technician when he decided to make a major career change.
Despite having little experience in web development, Lye, then 26, quit his job and enrolled in a five-month coding bootcamp at Fullstack Academy in March 2018.
When the program ended, he had enough knowledge to land a job as a Fullstack teaching assistant before starting his career as a software engineer at JP Morgan Chase.
“It’s something that someone has to take very seriously, but I think it’s one of the best things you can do,” Lye said of the intensive training program.
With New York City’s unemployment rate at nearly 20 percent, the city’s Small Business Services agency is hoping more people, especially out-of-work residents, will follow Lye’s lead and train for recession-proof careers in web development.
SBS is helping pave a new path for some COVID-impacted New Yorkers through Career Discovery NYC, an online portal that helps individuals learn about, prepare for and enroll in free career training.
The initial programs focus on web development, including a Coding 101 course that teaches the basics of JavaScript. SBS will gradually introduce training programs for careers in tech, healthcare, media and manufacturing.
The introductory courses will give participants a taste of what to expect should they decide to go all in. Lye recommends that users fully commit the time and energy to their training — the Fullstack program is demanding.
“If you aren't eating or sleeping you should be thinking of studying or learning more,” he said. “It's easier if it's something you enjoy because it will be the most important thing for that person at that point in time.”
Anyone is eligible to use the Career Discovery portal and explore potential career paths, but only certain New Yorkers qualify for free licenses provided by another partner company, Codeacademy, that enable users to complete the coding courses at home.
To qualify for the free Codeacademy pro licenses, which cost up to $40 per month, individuals must be at least 18, earn $50,000 or less, demonstrate that their income has been affected by COVID-19 and/or serve as an essential worker.
“We’re trying to make sure whoever needs it can get it,” said SBS Commissioner Jonnel Doris.
Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers cannot easily access the program because they do not have reliable internet or web-enabled devices. Nearly half of New York City’s low-income households, including homeless shelter residents, lack access to broadband internet, the city reported in January. In the Bronx, more than a third of all residents lack at-home connectivity.
Advocates for the rights of seniors and low-income New Yorkers have called on the city to speed up a plan to extend universal WiFi coverage to New Yorkers in need. In July, Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to accelerate the city’s “Internet Master Plan” to ensure broadband access in NYCHA sites.
Doris said the city is working with Fullstack and Codeacademy to make sure lower-income New Yorkers can access the portal and its offerings. The SBS website also provides information about free WiFi availability in the city, though many of the locations are currently closed indoor venues such as libraries and community centers.
Even without consistent citywide internet access, the demand for the program is clear, Doris said.
In the first week of outreach, about 2,000 people visited the site to learn more about the career portal, he said.
SBS pegs the average web developer salary at $70,000, based on Glassdoor estimates. Doris is hoping many of those 2,000 New Yorkers pursue the programs on offer and reenter the workforce via the high-paying tech sector.
“Great jobs come at the end of it,” Doris said.
