NEW YORK—New York City Public Advocate and mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio said that if elected mayor he would set a goal to fill the majority of technology jobs in New York City with candidates from within the city in eight years.
De Blasio praised Mayor Michael Bloomberg for drawing technology companies to the city and said he would go a step further by bringing the education necessary to secure the technology jobs for NYC graduates.
“While efforts to make New York a global hub for young talent are admirable, we cannot afford to import more college educated New Yorkers than we produce,” said de Blasio. “We must create jobs for young people who are growing up in this city, who have always called this home.”
The core of de Blasio’s plan is to adopt Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s proposal and establish a dedicated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) program in the City University of New York (CUNY).
One CUNY STEM institute currently operating in the city accepts students from 57 high schools who meet certain eligibility criteria. The school offers a curriculum to 9–11 graders which is meant to encourage them to pursue jobs in the fields of engineering, computer science, science, business management, entrepreneurship, and mathematics.
Bloomberg initiated a program earlier this year to bring computer science and software engineering courses to New York City high schools. There are 1,000 students in the pilot program and Bloomberg plans to expand it to $3,500 students by 2016.
