Career Discovery Week
The New York City Department of Education and the Partnership for New York City have partnered to launch the city’s first-ever Career Discovery Week from February 10-14, 2020.
An Introduction to the Business World
Over 180 of the city’s major employers are joining forces to build a bridge from the city’s classrooms to the world of business. Thousands of tenth graders will gain a better understanding of the future job opportunities available to them as they spend a day at company worksites, learning about the city’s varied industries and wide-ranging career possibilities.
Examples of Career Discovery Week activities include:
Brooklyn Navy Yard: Site visits of the Steiner film studios, New Lab technology center, Lafayette 148 New York luxury women’s fashion label and other Brooklyn Navy Yard facilities, as well as panel discussions featuring the CEOs of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Steiner Studios, Boston Properties and others.
JetBlue: Immersion session in JetBlue’s command center in Long Island City, Queens, featuring a tour of system operations and Q&As with pilots and engineers.
PwC: Creative computing and technology lessons and problem-solving challenges led by engineers and an interactive life-sized robot, as well as virtual- and augmented-reality experiences.
JPMorgan Chase: A workplace tour covering the bank’s many functional areas followed by financial literacy training and exercises on personal branding.
Macy’s: A behind-the-scenes look at Macy’s corporate headquarters and showrooms, where students will learn about how retail companies operate and how private-label fashion brands are conceptualized, designed and managed.
New York City high schools from all five boroughs are participating in this year’s Career Discovery Week with priority given to schools from under-resourced communities that do not have strong existing relationships with employers.
Schools have been matched with companies based on alignment between curricula and company sector; students from the Bronx Academy of Letters will visit Hearst to learn about the world of publishing; students from the Business of Sports School are visiting Peloton; students from the Theatre Arts Production Company School are participating in programming by the Shubert Organization.
Career Discovery Week builds on a 2018 research report developed by the Partnership and Oliver Wyman, which identified key ways businesses can work together to address some of the drivers of structural inequality and expand access to opportunity for all. Helping to close the achievement gap for minority and low-income students through work-based learning was identified as a key area for collaboration.