The City University of New York has significantly expanded its digital skills curriculum as part of a broad-based effort to produce a steady pipeline of diverse, adaptable, critical thinkers who can thrive in a workplace environment that is increasingly reliant on advanced digital technologies across most sectors of the economy. Another aim of this initiative is to encourage traditionally underrepresented groups to take up tech-focused areas of study.
CUNY colleges now offer more than 100 courses, workshops and clubs that equip students with 21st-century technical skills and tools including web development, data science, cybersecurity, coding, analytics, cloud-based technologies. The University is also aggressively cultivating relationships with digital companies such as Google and Facebook to create internship and networking opportunities, and to modernize coursework and curricula to reflect the latest industry trends.
“Whether students are entering the workforce in the health care, financial or nonprofit sector or a wide range of others, they will need digital skills; CUNY is working to make sure they get them,” said Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “Additionally, we want to make sure students understand the real-world applications that are becoming essential in just about every line of work. Because of our vast reach, and unparalleled ability to scale educational opportunities to the needs of so many different types of students, CUNY is positioned to equip large numbers of students to take advantage of these opportunities, and provide companies from every industry a robust pipeline of talent whose diversity mirrors that of the city.”
The demand for workers who have tech skills is robust and growing, and its reach transcends the tech sector. According to new research by Burning Glass Technologies and Oracle Academy, the New York-Newark-Jersey City metropolitan area in 2018 had the most information technology job postings in the country, with 515,106, and the share of those opportunities relative to other advertised jobs was 32%. New York City is home to 24,123 tech business establishments and the nation’s largest base of tech employment, according to CompTIA, and the city’s net tech employment job gains last year totaled 10,440, fifth-highest in the nation. Importantly, employers’ growing need for digitally skilled workers is not limited to the tech sector. According to Burning Glass, 90% of tech-focused jobs nationwide are being generated in non-tech industries.
The number of CUNY students poised to take advantage of this burgeoning area of opportunity has also been on the rise. Enrollment in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) rose from 29,924 students in 2008 to 47,349 in 2017, an increase of more than 58%.
In recent years, CUNY has bolstered its tech curriculum for students interested in pursuing tech-focused areas of study. In fall 2018, The Graduate Center launched master’s programs in data science, data analysis, quantitative methods, cognitive neuroscience and computational linguistics. Lehman College created an interdisciplinary minor in Data Science Methods and Applications in 2018.
For incoming freshmen from racial and ethnic groups that are traditionally underrepresented in tech, Queens College and Medgar Evers started in the summer of 2018 offering the Google Computer Science Summer Institute Extension Program where students interested in computer science are trained on campus by college faculty in an interactive program developed by Google professionals.
In response to mounting demand for IT specialists who can protect computer networks from cyber attacks, Bronx Community College in fall 2018 launched an associate degree program in Applied Science in Cybersecurity and Networking.
CUNY in 2017 rolled out CUNY 2X Tech, a multi-million dollar initiative designed in partnership with the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline that is working to double by 2022 the number of students graduating annually with a tech-related bachelors by providing enhanced access to courses, advising and internships. The program has led to jobs at Microsoft and GrubHub, among others. The initiative’s early success prompted CUNY to explore opportunities for its replication and expansion.
To close the gender gap and provide opportunities in tech for women, CUNY has developed the Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship in New York (WiTNY) initiative, which launched in 2016 and seeks to double the number of CUNY women who graduate with degrees in computer science and tech-related disciplines. This year, WiTNY will place 300 students in Winternships – winter intersession opportunities – with the goal of propelling them into longer-term internships and jobs.
In 2017, CUNY started the Tech-In-Residence Corps, bringing 44 industry professionals from the boardroom into classrooms of nine CUNY senior colleges to teach students applications for data science, artificial intelligence and blockchain.
CUNY is currently collaborating with tech companies to provide employment and internship opportunities and professional development for students. Here is a sampling of these partnerships:
● Deerfield Management offers CUNY students a paid internship in financial services at an employee-owned hedge fund sponsor that focuses on healthcare finance.
● Google selected LaGuardia Community College in June 2018 as one of the nation’s first community colleges to serve as a training site for Google’s IT Support Professional Certificate, which trains students with no prior experience to be IT support professionals. The program is also affiliated with Bank of America, Walmart, Sprint and GE Digital.
● Employees of the cloud-based software company Salesforce are holding workshops with CUNY students on foundational data management skills for careers as system administrators, IT managers and sales operations professionals.
● The IT company Revature is training CUNY graduates in computer programming to prepare them for jobs as software engineers for Fortune 500 Companies. The partnership is through a Tech Incubator at Queens College, which helps nurture tech startups.
● Silverline Consulting, which helps implement Salesforce databases, hired 10 CUNY students who successfully completed internships at the company. Silverline helped sponsor CUNY’s Hackathon for career development in 2018. This year’s Hackathon is scheduled for Oct. 18-20 at Baruch College.
CUNY is working on new, tech-focused ventures that will be unveiled over the coming year that are designed to help students become digitally fluent in the latest industry trends. This will enable students to develop technological fluency, along with knowledge and skills that can be utilized in the workplace across a range of industries and sectors. These programs include:
● A two-year master’s program in cybersecurity at City College of New York in collaboration with Facebook and other industry partners is set to launch in the fall of 2020 and will lead to internship and employment opportunities. The partnership is part of the Applied Learning Initiative fueled by the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s $100 million investment in cybersecurity programs throughout the city.
● CUNY is awarding course innovation grants worth a total of $100,000 to 10 CUNY schools for digital-focused collaborations in cybersecurity and data analytics with Guardian Life, JP Morgan and MasterCard. Tech professionals will run workshops, give lectures and incorporate their ideas into the school curriculum.
● More than 30 Google engineers have committed to visiting CUNY’s eight four-year campuses that offer computer science degree programs in the 2019-2020 academic year to support, educate and recruit students interested in technical careers.
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