York Scores $100,000 in Upskilling Funding

The good news keeps coming for York this spring.

The College was recently informed that its application for a BNY Mellon Foundation-funded ACE Upskilling opportunity has been approved to the tune of $100,000 for skills-building for area high school graduates.

The funds will be used by the College’s Continuing Education Workforce Programs to help create job training in Quickbooks Bookkeeper and Project Management for community residents without college degrees, as well as added skills for current college students, many of whom need to work while attending College. 

“Congratulations, our committee evaluated all proposals and based on ACE Upskilling LOI guidelines, we are pleased to inform these select training from your proposal were approved: Project Management and QuickBooks Bookkeeper,” they informed Dr. Maureen Becker, Dean of the School of Health and Professional Programs and Interim Dean of the School of Business.” 

The program, according to Dean Becker, is a CUNY initiative, that the York College Office of Academic Affairs (Dean Becker, Interim Provost Derrick Brazill, Interim Dean George White and Erzulie Mars), as well as Dr. Earl Simons (Government and Community Relations), collaborated on.  

According to Dean Becker, the College will benefit by: 

1. Being a part of this great initiative (9 CUNY campuses were chosen) 
2. The monies awarded will pay for: course development (we can pay expert faculty to do this); course instruction; staffing (hiring of a part-time CA); marketing; "hotspots" for participants who need free access for both students and community members to these highly sought after valuable work skills training (software and/or books will be included free as well). 
3. Aligns with our current planning to re-vitalize our York College Adult Continuing Education Program 
4. Through the marketing and attention, these offerings get, it reflects and gives the College some free public relations. 
5. Including our Southeast Queens community members and small businesses as recipients benefitting from the funds, York College has been awarded. 

The York College Team was approved to have funding for two out of six offerings the York team originally proposed (high-growth occupational track offerings, pre-requisites, and highlights):  

1. The Project Management program requires a high school diploma or equivalent and it will help students learn the specific skills required to effectively manage projects across a variety of disciplines. 
2. The QuickBooks program requires an introductory course in accounting and will provide training that will help individuals learn specific skills to effectively serve a variety of businesses, especially the small-sized firms that are neighbors of the College. 

Preparations for the Spring 2021 offerings are upcoming as CUNY is finalizing the application by March 22, 2021, so registration will start shortly after that. 

The offerings will be as follows: 

“I am extremely excited and working diligently to get all in place so we can begin to utilize these funds to get programming up and running by April 1, 2021,” says Dean Becker. “With the Budget of $100,000, we are in the process of hiring a part-time college assistant.” 

The good news, she says, is that this ‘great news” is just the beginning. “There will be other opportunities by CUNY ACE Upskilling Initiative in the future and we are poised and ready to apply and expand the offerings to all we can,” Dr. Becker assures.