On September 25, Gotham Gazette published an op-ed by Sharon Sewell-Fairman, Executive Director of WPTI. The op-ed highlights how the workforce development field, particularly frontline workforce training professionals, are generally overlooked in New York's economic recovery conversation and how their contributions to training and reskilling unemployed populations are critical for helping low-income populations, who were hit hardest by the pandemic, access available jobs and businesses rebuild their workforce.
Gotham Gazette Op-Ed: “A Critical But Too Often Ignored Piece to New York City’s Economic Recovery”
AM New York Op-Ed: “Closing the digital divide can help get New Yorkers back to work”
On Monday, August 3, AM New York published an op-ed written by Sharon Sewell-Fairman, Executive Director of WPTI, focused on closing the digital divide to get New Yorkers back to work.
Read the op-ed here
Announcing: Workforce Systems Leadership 2020 Cohort!
Voices from the Frontline
Why Focus on Frontline Workforce Professionals?
Workforce Systems Leadership Program – Applications Open for 2020-2021 Cohort

Through a strategic partnership with Coro New York, WPTI’s Workforce Field Building HUB has launched a 24-member cohort training program, for leaders from government, community-based organizations, academia, and the private sector to advance leadership skills, cultivate a deeper understanding of New York City’s workforce system, and create change at the systemic level.
Job Developers Learning Group 2020

With support from The Pinkerton Foundation, we are pleased to announce the sixth cohort of the Job Developers Learning Group(JDLG). The JDLG is a rigorous cohort-based training program designed to equip and empower job developers with skills that best meet the needs of employer partners and program participants. Represented in this cohort are 36 frontline workforce development practitioners from 28 organizations that provide direct service to youth and adult jobseekers across NYC’s five boroughs. This cohort joins 190 practitioners who are successfully applying lessons learned from this program to their work in the field.
Who is the “Frontline” of the Workforce Development Field?
2020 Survey of NYC Frontline Workforce Professionals

In September 2018, the Workforce Field Building Hub (“The Hub”) at Workforce Professionals Training Institute (“WPTI”) released The Workforce Agenda for New York City. The document outlined key challenges facing New York City’s workforce system and offered targeted recommendations to providers, …..
The Hub Testifies Before City Council on the Mayor’s New York Works Plan

On Monday, March 18, Justin Collins, Assistant Director of the Workforce Field Building Hub at WPTI testified before a joint session of the Oversight Committee and the Economic Development Committee of the New York City Council, along with representatives from several other workforce intermediaries, service providers, and advocates. The session was co-chaired by Councilmember Ritchie Torres, Chair of the Oversight Committee, and Paul Vallone, Chair of the Economic Development Committee, and focused on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s New York Works plan, launched in 2014 as an economic development strategy for creating 100,000 jobs in the coming decade. New York City Economic Development Corporation President James Patchett testified to the City’s progress on this effort.