This week, the New York City Council is asking some important questions about artificial intelligence: How do we make sure these technologies are safe? How do we create appropriate guardrails? And how do we understand and report on their impacts?
Those are important questions. But I want to add another one: What does AI safety mean for workers?
Because if we’re serious about protecting New Yorkers from the risks of AI, economic security has to be part of that conversation.
One of the proposals before the Council, Introduction 161, sponsored by Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, would require City agencies to report on how algorithmic tools are affecting the public workforce, including whether positions are being eliminated or workers displaced, how jobs and responsibilities are changing, and where workers need new training.
That matters. But identifying the impact is only the beginning.
For workers, the question isn’t simply whether AI is safe or whether we can measure its effects. It’s more immediate: What happens to me when this technology changes my job?
What happens to the entry-level worker whose foundational, first-rung tasks are increasingly automated? To the mid-career professional watching the skills that built their career shift in real time while being expected to work in fundamentally different ways? Or to the seasoned leader responsible for managing a workforce through changes they’re still learning to navigate?
We shouldn’t wait until workers lose their jobs to respond.
New York City has an opportunity to build worker-transition infrastructure alongside technological guardrails.
That means helping employers redesign jobs responsibly. Giving incumbent workers access to training before they’re displaced. Creating clear pathways into emerging and AI-enabled occupations. And making sure that when displacement does happen, workers have somewhere to turn for the support they need to navigate what comes next.
Our workforce development system has an essential role to play here. But that requires us to think differently about when we intervene.
We cannot build a system that waits for someone to lose their job before deciding they need help. We need to get much better at intervening while the transition is still happening.
We don’t know exactly how AI will reshape New York City’s labor market. And we don’t need to pretend that we do. What we know is that work is already changing. And we have a choice about whether our systems change with it.
If New York City is serious about building guardrails for AI, we should be just as serious about building guardrails for workers.
AI safety can’t just be about making the technology safer. AI safety has to include economic security.
Introducing the Thursday Throughline, a new weekly feature from NYCETC.
A throughline is the thread that runs through a story and ties it together. New York’s workforce story spans reports, budgets, hearings, and the experiences of workers and providers. Each Thursday, we’ll pull one thread: a report, data point, or policy development. We’ll show how it connects to the issues our coalition works on every day and to the voices we’ve featured on The NYC Workforce Drop. Every edition ends with a concrete recommendation for policymakers, employers, or our field.
Our first Throughline looks at NYCETC member United Neighborhood Houses’ new report, Building a Strong Foundation, and what it tells us about the people who make child care expansion possible.
New York’s child care expansion is an economic investment. It lets parents work, helps employers keep talent, and creates jobs in an essential industry. Its success depends on whether child care providers can afford to stay in the field. Right now, many cannot: in 2023, New York City child care workers had a median income of just $25,000, the lowest of any care workers in the city and 45% of the median for all other workers.
United Neighborhood Houses’ Building a Strong Foundation finds that the community providers it surveyed receive, on average, 36% less per child than the cost of high-quality care, as estimated by UNH’s cost model. Expanding access means funding the workforce and the full cost of running these programs. That is the argument behind NYCETC’s statement, Universal Childcare Is Free. The Workers Aren’t, and our conversation with Lauren Melodia of the Center for New York City Affairs on The NYC Workforce Drop: care workers are our city’s most essential infrastructure.
Other cities and states offer forward-thinking approaches to paying early childhood educators more. Washington, D.C., and New Mexico use dedicated public funding to support higher child care wages, with New Mexico pairing long-term investment with targeted wage supplements. Approaches vary, but the lesson is consistent: government can raise the revenue, set compensation expectations, and ensure the money reaches the people providing care.
NYC should establish a recurring city-state compensation equity fund, built into early childhood contracts, with salary progression, benefits, annual adjustments, and a separate formula for home-based providers. Dedicated progressive revenue, such as a high-income surcharge or a payroll assessment on large employers, should be evaluated to sustain it. The proposed Early Learning Child Care Act, which would fund care through an employer payroll tax, is one starting point for that discussion.
New York has already shown what temporary support can accomplish and what happens when it ends. The Schuyler Center documents a decline in full-time educator bonuses from $3,000 in 2023 to $2,250 in 2024. Two subsequent state budgets provided no dedicated child care workforce funding, and the FY2027 budget omitted the proposed compensation fund. The state’s separate employer cost-sharing pilot helps some working families afford care, but it does not close educators’ wage gaps. Making care affordable for parents and making care work financially sustainable for educators require investment on both sides.
New America’s history of employer-sponsored benefits shows why a lasting public commitment matters. Employers should help build community care capacity, and families should keep their access to care when they change jobs. Fund compensation parity as an explicit part of early childhood expansion. A teacher’s path to a decent wage should not depend on which building houses the classroom or on how old the children are.
NEW YORK, NY — The Energy Efficiency Employer Coalition is entering its second year with plans to nearly double participation, growing from 11 companies toward a goal of 20 employers as New York City’s green economy creates new demand for skilled workers. Led by the New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCETC) and The Green Launchpad, the coalition is expanding its work to align hiring needs, training, and career pathways across the city’s energy efficiency sector.
“New York cannot meet its climate goals if employers cannot find the people they need to do the work,” said Gregory J. Morris, CEO of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition. “The problem is not a lack of ambition. It is whether our workforce system is actually organized around the jobs we need to fill. This coalition puts employers at the table from the beginning, defining the skills, training, and career pathways their industry requires. That means training is tied to real jobs, employers have a stronger pipeline of talent, and workers can see a path forward. Year one showed the model works. Now we need to grow it.”
“Year one showed us how much employers can accomplish when they have a structured place to identify shared workforce challenges and work through them together,” said Angela N. Son, Founder and CEO of The Green Launchpad. “The toolkit was one result of that collaboration. In year two, we are building on what employers told us, bringing more companies into the conversation, and creating a more consistent framework for how the energy efficiency sector collaborates to identify and develop the talent it needs.”
“When employers are clear about the skills they need, workforce partners can prepare people more effectively for the jobs that are available,” said Antuan Cannon, Vice President of Talent Development & Innovation at Willdan. “For employers like Willdan, that means being directly involved in defining the skills, training, and experience that make someone ready to succeed on the job. This coalition creates a forum to have those conversations across the industry and turn them into practical tools employers can actually use.”
“Con Edison knows that a skilled workforce is essential to meeting New York’s clean energy goals as the green economy continues to grow,” said Jen Hensley, senior vice president, Con Edison Corporate Affairs. “This coalition helps connect workers to in-demand employment and directly shapes the types of energy‑efficiency and retrofit jobs in our local construction sector. Expanding our collaboration in year two will help strengthen the talent pipeline and recruiting capacity of small and mid-sized contractors and minority- and women-owned firms.”
“New York’s buildings are being asked to do more, from cutting energy use to meeting new performance requirements, and that creates a real need for people who understand how these systems work in practice,” said Dylan Oakley, Vice President at Greenwich Energy Solutions. “For companies working directly with building owners and managers, having a workforce with the right technical knowledge is critical. The Coalition helps make sure those real-world needs are reflected in how workers are trained and prepared for careers in the energy efficiency sector.”
“Building New York City’s clean energy workforce means making sure the people who have historically been left out of the energy sector can see a real pathway into it,” said Daphany Rose Sanchez, Executive Director of Kinetic Communities Consulting (KC3). “Employers have to be part of designing that pathway, from defining the skills they need to creating opportunities for people to get hired, gain experience, and advance. This coalition helps connect climate investment to real careers while building the workforce we need to deliver energy efficiency at scale.”
“Energy efficiency projects only move from plans to reality when building owners have access to the right expertise and the right workforce,” said Robert Sedaghatpour, Founder and President of STRATCO Property Solutions. “Our work sits at the intersection of building performance, incentives, compliance, and implementation, and all of those areas depend on skilled people who understand how to get projects done. The Coalition helps strengthen that connection between what the market needs and how the workforce is being prepared to meet it.”
In its first year, the Coalition turned more than 22 hours of employer input into a practical workforce toolkit built around three in-demand entry-level roles: Junior Energy Auditor, Project Coordinator, and Junior Field Technician in HVAC and weatherization. The toolkit gives employers and workforce partners a common set of job descriptions, screening and interview tools, evaluation checklists, career pathway examples, hiring incentive information, and workforce resources. With that foundation in place, year two is focused on expanding the model and moving more directly from employer demand to hiring and advancement.
Year two is focused on taking the Coalition’s employer-led model further. As EEEC grows from 11 participating companies toward a goal of 20 employers, it will expand the number of occupations it covers and deepen the connection between employer demand, training, and hiring.
Priorities for the second year include:
- Defining additional job titles, job descriptions, and career tracks for in-demand positions;
- Developing career pathways that identify the education, experience, and credentials needed for advancement;
- Helping employers map on-the-job training plans for entry-level positions;
- Connecting employers directly with training providers and qualified candidate pools; and
- Improving access to workforce development resources, hiring incentives, and funding.
The Coalition’s expansion also demonstrates the broader workforce model NYCETC has been advocating across the green economy: start with the jobs employers need to fill, then align training, workforce investment, and career pathways around that demand. In testimony before the City Council earlier this year, NYCETC pointed to The Green Launchpad as a practical framework that could strengthen employer engagement and inform industry partnerships across other green economy sectors.
That same approach is central to NYCETC’s An Affordable Climate Economy report, which argues that New York City will only realize the economic potential of its climate investments if employers, workforce providers, educators, and government are working from the same set of workforce needs. As EEEC grows, it offers a concrete example of what that alignment can look like, and how workforce development can help turn climate goals into jobs, career growth, and a stronger local economy.
About the Energy Efficiency Employer Coalition
The Energy Efficiency Employer Coalition is an employer-led initiative convened by the New York City Employment and Training Coalition and The Green Launchpad to strengthen New York City’s energy efficiency workforce. The Coalition brings employers and workforce partners together to identify hiring needs, define occupations and competencies, develop career pathways, improve hiring and onboarding practices, and better connect workforce investments with real industry demand.
About the New York City Employment and Training Coalition
The New York City Employment and Training Coalition is the largest city-based workforce development association in the country, supporting more than 220 member organizations that serve over 200,000 New Yorkers annually. NYCETC advances policies, partnerships, and investments that expand economic opportunity and strengthen New York City’s economy. Working at the intersection of workforce development, education, business, labor, and economic development, NYCETC and its members connect New Yorkers, especially those from historically marginalized communities, to quality jobs, career pathways, and the supports needed to succeed.
Media Contact: Patrick McCabe, Patrick@hayesinitiative.com, (631) 747-7906
Testimony submitted by Gregory J. Morris, Chief Executive Officer of New York City Employment & Training Coalition on September 22, 2026.
Good morning, Chair Aldebol and members of the Committee. I’m Gregory Morris, CEO of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCETC), the country’s largest network of workforce development providers.
I testified before this Committee in April, three months into the new administration, about a municipal workforce carrying more than 13,000 unfilled positions. Five months later, I want to give credit where it is due, walk through what the Fiscal 2026 Mayor’s Management Report (MMR) tells us about DCAS – and what it doesn’t – and then make a specific ask.
Progress Made
The current administration and Council have advanced important recruitment reforms while building on initiatives already underway. In February 2026, the Mayor eliminated the two-for-one hiring restriction, allowing agencies to hire within their personnel budgets. Beginning July 1, under Local Law 57 of 2025—sponsored by Council Member Carmen De La Rosa—civil-service exam fees were waived for New York City high school students and first-time applicants, while Notices of Examination became available for translation into more than 190 languages.
What’s Next: What the MMR Shows—and What It Still Needs to Measure
The DCAS section of the MMR tells a story about the front of the pipeline:
- Jobs NYC received 1,775,665 employment applications in Fiscal 2026, and DCAS reached more than 15,500 people through 268 career outreach events.
- The exam schedule grew from 186 to 208 exams, a 12% increase.
And yet, according to the Comptroller’s Agency Staffing Dashboard, the City had 15,530 vacant full-time positions this spring – a 5.1 percent vacancy rate, still more than double the pre-pandemic level – and the active workforce shrank after the freeze ended, from 292,483 in January to 291,717 in April. Nearly two-thirds of the vacancies are civilian titles: caseworkers, community associates, clinical and administrative staff. DCAS’s own resources table in the MMR shows the agency at 2,139 personnel against 2,598 authorized – roughly 18 percent vacant at the agency that runs hiring.
These figures point to a deeper challenge: expanding recruitment and removing front-end barriers have not yet translated into a fully staffed municipal workforce. Somewhere between the application and the appointment, the pipeline is losing people, and the MMR cannot tell this Committee where.
The MMR leaves four essential issues unresolved:
- The MMR measures exam-to-results and stops. The 101-day figure is a real achievement, but it covers one segment. No indicator tracks time from eligible list to appointment, list utilization, how many candidates are reached before a list expires, or how many people who pass an exam are ever hired. Those numbers decide whether a working adult stays in the process or walks away.
- Exam applications fell 28 percent — from 166,000 to 119,117 — and the MMR attributes it to the exam mix. The MMR shows that the share of active employees in titles included on the civil-service exam schedule fell from 53.4 percent to 44.8 percent—and DCAS acknowledges that this indicator measures exam coverage, not performance. If an exam didn’t cover competitive titles, eliminating fees cannot help New Yorkers still waiting for the chance to take one.
- The pathways that exist are built for two populations, and neither is ours. The Civil Service Pathways Fellowship requires a CUNY bachelor’s degree. The Youth Apprenticeship title serves ages 16 to 24. Both are good. But the New Yorkers NYCETC members serve — working adults aged 25 to 54, immigrants, people without a four-year degree, people coming home from Rikers — have no comparable structured route from a community-based training program into a City title. The MMR has no indicator that would even show they are missing.
- Nothing tracks whether the waiver is working. The Fiscal 2027 MMR should report how many first-time and high-school waivers were granted, how many of those candidates sat for an exam, passed, were listed, and were appointed — disaggregated by race, gender, and borough. The chapter already shows the female share of new hires falling from 40.6 to 37.3 percent in one year; without waiver data, the Council will not know whether the law is closing that gap.
The Racial Equity Plan Reinforces the Case
DCAS’s chapter of the City’s Racial Equity Plan names the right priority first: remove the gaps in race, gender, age, and disability in City jobs. Several of its commitments are exactly what a pathway for working adults requires, and I want to hold the agency to them.
The plan commits to review 150 civil service titles by 2028 and revise minimum qualifications to credit relevant work experience and practical skills. It commits to measure that reform by the number of job applications and the number of candidates on eligible lists for revised titles. Those indicators provide a strong foundation for measuring equitable access and progress. Incorporating them into the MMR would align the City’s accountability framework with the Racial Equity Plan and make its commitments and results visible to the public.
Other reflections:
- The Racial Equity Plan reports that DCAS held 308 career outreach events in Fiscal 2025, a 66 percent increase. The MMR reports 268 in Fiscal 2026. So outreach fell 13 percent in the year the fee waiver launched.
- Ten “Civil Service 101” sessions on Rikers Island and in ACS youth facilities reached 128 people — the right instinct, at a scale that cannot move a 15,000-position gap.
- The plan’s one program for adult workers without a degree, EPIC, lets employees earn a high school equivalency and 27 college credits, but it’s open only to people already on the City payroll. The New Yorker outside the system, without a degree, over 24, still has no door.
- Finally, the plan commits DCAS to deliver the first Local Law 27 pay equity analysis by May 2027, covering the 15 titles that deviate most from citywide gender demographics and the 15 that deviate most by race. This Committee should ask for that report on the record, because the titles it names are almost certainly the ones a community-based pathway should be feeding.
The Lesson of the Last Five Months
Removing barriers is essential, but it is only the beginning. Lifting a hiring restriction creates the authority to hire; waiving an exam fee expands access. Recruitment brings people to the door, but a pathway helps them move through it and into a career.
DCAS has already demonstrated the value of this approach through two promising pathways: one for CUNY graduates and another for young people. Both deserve recognition and expansion. The next opportunity is to build a third pathway—one designed for working adults, who make up most of New York City’s labor force and the people served by our community-based workforce system.
Meanwhile, the State has extended NY HELPS through June 2028, allowing State and most local governments to hire for many titles without an examination. The program has filled more than 42,000 positions, but New York City has chosen not to participate. Reasonable people—including our labor partners—disagree about that decision, and I am not here to relitigate it. But if the civil-service exam remains the gateway to public service in New York City, the City has a responsibility to build an accessible pathway to that gateway for every New Yorker—not only those already connected to a college campus.
What NYCETC Proposes
NYCETC proposes a coordinated, equity-centered civil-service pathway for working adults, building on what DCAS has already shown can work through its fellowship and apprenticeship models. The pathway would combine neighborhood-based recruitment; exam preparation; credentialed training aligned with actual City vacancies and DCAS’s revised minimum qualifications; fee assistance and wraparound supports; placement in partnership with unions and hiring agencies; and advancement opportunities for incumbent workers. It would initially target the sectors with some of the City’s deepest staffing needs, including healthcare, early childhood education, parks, and sanitation, and would be delivered with CUNY community colleges and the City’s labor and trade partners.
NYCETC’s share of the investment would support training, exam preparation, fee assistance, and the wraparound services that enable working adults to complete the pathway. The remaining resources would support union and labor partners, ensuring that the initiative is anchored in appointments and advancement—not training completions alone.
In its first year, the pathway would directly serve at least 300 New Yorkers:
- 50 participants earning industry-recognized credentials;
- 100 completing civil-service exam preparation;
- 25 securing full-time City employment; and
- 125 incumbent municipal workers receiving training for advancement.
What We Ask of This Committee
Our proposal has two core components: fund a third, community-based civil-service pathway for working adults, and strengthen the MMR so the City can measure whether that pathway leads to appointments and career advancement. The specific actions below would put both components into practice.
1. Beginning with the Fiscal 2027 Preliminary MMR, require DCAS to report the time from eligible-list placement to appointment; list-utilization rates; exam passage and appointment rates; Local Law 57 waiver participation and outcomes; and the Racial Equity Plan’s indicators for applications and eligible-list placements under revised minimum qualifications. Report these measures by title and demographic group.
2. Pair the fee waiver with preparation. Fund free exam preparation through community-based workforce providers so that Local Law 57 reaches New Yorkers who would benefit most—not only those who already know how to navigate the civil-service system.
3. Extend the fellowship model to the workforce system. Adapt the Civil Service Pathways Fellowship’s core features—a paid title, specialized training, and eligibility for a civil-service exam after one year—for graduates of community-based training programs, not only CUNY bachelor’s-degree recipients.
4. Designate workforce organizations as formal recruitment and preparation partners for DCAS and hiring agencies.
Nearly 1.8 million New Yorkers applied for City jobs last year. The talent is here. The interest is here. The City has already built promising models—and thousands of positions remain open. NYCETC and our members can help connect these assets by building a pathway for working adults and helping the City measure whether it leads to appointments and career advancement.
Together, we can do more than fill vacancies. We can make public service a visible, navigable, and achievable career for New Yorkers in every community. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
Testimony submitted by Gregory J. Morris, Chief Executive Officer of New York City Employment & Training Coalition on September 22, 2026.
Good afternoon, Chair Dinowitz and members of the Committee. I’m Gregory Morris, CEO of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCETC) the largest city-based network of workforce development providers in the country. NYCETC is a FutureReadyNYC partner, and I co-chair the Education and Human Services Industry Commission convened by NYC Public Schools’ Office of Student Pathways.
I’m here with a simple message: The State has set a clear destination for every graduate, and the City now has an opportunity to build—and measure—the pathways that will help every student reach it.
The Portrait sets the destination
In July 2025, the Board of Regents adopted the Portrait of a Graduate: six attributes — academically prepared, creative innovator, critical thinker, effective communicator, global citizen, and reflective and future-focused.
It broadens student readiness beyond a test score, and we welcome that.
But attributes such as “effective communicator” and “reflective and future-focused” come alive through experience. They are developed and demonstrated in the settings uniquely suited to prepare students for workplace success—a job, a paid internship, or a project with an employer. Career-connected learning is not an add-on to the Portrait; it is how students build and demonstrate these capabilities.
New York City already has the implementation vehicle.
FutureReadyNYC is the City’s effort to develop industry-aligned coursework, credentials, college credit opportunities, career exploration, and paid work-based learning. By the City’s own account, students have earned more than $30 million through work-based learning since Fiscal 2022, and participating students show better attendance and GPAs. The oversight question is whether NYCPS will move from a promising program in about one in three high schools to a universal, accountable system.
Aligning the Destination and the Direction: What the Mayor’s Management Report (MMR) Doesn’t Tell Us
I want to spend most of my time on accountability, because the clearest place to see the gap is the Fiscal 2026 Mayor’s Management Report. Here is what I found.
1. The indicators most closely aligned with the Portrait are also the ones we cannot yet see. Goal 1e, “Increase postsecondary enrollment,” and Goal 1f, “Increase high school students’ access to coursework that prepares them for future success,” speak most directly to whether students are gaining the knowledge, experiences, and opportunities the Portrait envisions. Yet every Fiscal 2026 indicator under both goals is reported as “NA,” leaving the City without a current public measure of progress. The latest postsecondary-enrollment rate, from Fiscal 2024, is 63.0 percent, while the latest college-and-career-readiness rate, from Fiscal 2025, is 54.2 percent. These figures provide a foundation to build on. With a broader, more ambitious definition of readiness now in place, the City can set a Fiscal 2027 target beyond the current 55.2 percent and measure the full range of academic, career-connected, and workplace experiences that will help every student realize the Portrait.
2. FutureReadyNYC appears in the narrative and nowhere in the numbers. The MMR credits FutureReadyNYC with lower chronic absenteeism, higher attendance, improved GPAs, $30 million in student earnings, 75,000 students completing career-exploration coursework, and 190 participating high schools. FutureReadyNYC gives the City a strong foundation for measuring career readiness. By adding indicators for student participation, paid placements, credentials, college credits, and employer commitments, the MMR can make the reach and results of the City’s flagship career-readiness program visible and establish a clear baseline for expanding what works.
3. Five of the six Portrait attributes are not yet reflected in the MMR. The MMR measures whether students are academically prepared in a dozen ways, but it does not yet capture whether graduates are critical thinkers, effective communicators, creative innovators, global citizens, or reflective and future-focused. If the Portrait is the City’s standard for student success, its accountability framework should measure the full Portrait—not only one-sixth of it.
4. The funding picture should be more visible. FutureReadyNYC does not appear in the chapter’s spending table, making it difficult to distinguish baselined City funding from federal, State, philanthropic, or time-limited support. Greater transparency would help policymakers understand what is sustaining the initiative, where funding may be vulnerable, and what investment is needed to expand its reach.
5. The City can connect participation to outcomes. Citywide chronic absenteeism stands at 33.5 percent, above the 29 percent target, and increased this year. The MMR identifies FutureReadyNYC as a strategy for reducing chronic absenteeism. Measuring and publishing attendance outcomes for participating students would allow the City to demonstrate the program’s impact, learn from its strongest results, and direct funding toward what works.
NYCETC’s role, and the Industry Commissions
This school year, the Office of Student Pathways moved its Industry Commissions — sectors covering healthcare, business and technology, construction and engineering, education and human services, and more — from broad discussion to a Strategic Action Plan model. Each Commission commits to two or three measurable actions against three district priorities: expanding student access to career-connected and work-based learning, aligning curriculum to industry needs, and industry-led educator upskilling. Progress is checked in the fall, at a winter equity checkpoint that asks who is being reached and who is not, and at a spring year-end reflection.
Our partners are ready to contribute. As co-chair of the Education and Human Services Commission, I am helping lead a shared commitment to map the pathways into education and human-services careers—including entry points, credentials, prior-learning opportunities, and the durable skills needed to succeed. We will also deliver employer-led “Power Ups,” create structured career-exploration experiences around real workplace challenges, and provide NYCPS with actionable feedback so the model grows stronger through its first year of implementation.
The Commissions are valuable employer-led infrastructure: they bring partners together, define quality, map pathways, and connect students to industry expertise with support from a small central OSP team. Their impact can grow significantly when paired with the City’s unique assets: a citywide intermediary strategy, dedicated funding for paid placements, and the public investment needed to achieve scale. Incorporating the Commissions’ contributions into the MMR would also make their progress visible, strengthen accountability, and help the City build on what works.
What we ask
1. Put FutureReadyNYC in the Fiscal 2027 Preliminary MMR. Establish indicators—specific to FutureReadyNYC and distinct from CTE—that track participating schools and students; eligibility, offers, starts, and completion of paid work-based learning; hours worked and wages earned; credentials and college credits attained; and employer commitments. Disaggregate results by borough, sector, and student subgroup.
2. Publish the path to every high school. Set a clear expansion timeline, annual targets for schools and students, and one authoritative measure of the program’s reach.
3. Establish a dedicated multiyear budget. Baseline City funding, distinguish it clearly from federal, State, philanthropic, and other time-limited resources, and include the full investment in the NYCPS spending table.
4. Create “Commitment 100.” Establish a citywide commitment to connect every young adult to a quality job, paid work experience, or career pathway. Just as Vision Zero set a clear, measurable goal and aligned agencies around achieving it, Commitment 100 would make universal career access a defining City priority with transparent targets, shared accountability, and the infrastructure needed to reach every young New Yorker.
5. Invest in the infrastructure required for scale. Secure measurable employer commitments, fund a citywide intermediary strategy, and strengthen OSP’s capacity to make the Industry Commissions and Advisory Council an effective feedback loop connecting schools, employers, and students.
The Portrait establishes the destination. The City Council can help set the direction by ensuring the City builds, funds, and measures the pathways every student needs to reach it. NYCETC and our members are ready to build those pathways with you. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.