CUNY's Workforce Development Initiative is designed to maximize the University's economic impact by preparing workers for employment in the industries that will drive the local and national economies in the next century. Activities include research on the creation of new jobs and analysis of labor market trends. Among the Initiative's recent accomplishments:
  • The Small Business Lab at Baruch College has provided formal instruction and individual consultation to more than 700 New Yorkers. Participants plan computer stores, community newspapers, catering companies, record production companies and graphic design studios, among other enterprises. The Lab also administers popular Small Business Development Centers at Bronx Community College and in the Harlem-East Harlem Enterprise Zone.
  • Kingsborough Community College's Small Business Development Center helps entrepreneurs in Brooklyn set up new businesses and expand others.
  • LaGuardia Community College offers short courses to help small businesses in Queens prepare a business plan and use new computer software for bookkeeping and project cost estimating.
  • Hunter College's computer-based Geographic Information System, the most sophisticated on the East Coast, conducts research on how to solve problems that directly impact the quality of life in the city, including environmental and waste management, zoning, housing, crime, transportation planning, and health issues.
  • Fifteen CUNY campuses offer career counseling and academic advisement to paraprofessionals working in the City's schools. The aim is to encourage these workers to become certified teachers, alleviating a teacher shortage in the city and providing upward mobility to those dedicated to the school system.

  • A study of the job-creation potential of recycling and the manufacturing of recycled goods found that more than 20,000 new jobs could be added to the economy if New York City intensified its recycling efforts. The total payroll of these new jobs would exceed $600 million. Studies were published on worker dislocation in New York City and on changing patterns of employment in New York City hospitals.
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