Business Council

The HERE to HERE Business Council

HERE to HERE champions youth in The Bronx by bringing together business, education, and community leaders to build equitable avenues to lifelong career success. 

Key to our work is identifying the systemic challenges facing students and leveraging our resources and expertise to do something about it. Establishing and incubating ambitious and far-reaching initiatives that can transform the way we think about work and learning–and ultimately change how we collectively develop talent–is one of the ways HERE to HERE mobilizes people and organizations to create paths to rewarding careers for young people.

The HERE to HERE Business Council brought CEOs and Chief Human Resources Officers from leading NYC employers together around their shared commitment to youth talent development. The Council served as the founding syndicate of companies that defined and modeled an ROI-positive youth apprenticeship system through the establishment of CareerWise New York.

The youth apprenticeship system proved to be successful for students and employers, so much so that in August of 2020, 25+ CEOs from NYC Fortune 100 companies came together to launch the New York Jobs CEO Council. The Council absorbed both the HERE to HERE Business Council and CareerWise NYC, which is now an independent nonprofit organization aligned with the Council. 

The launch of the New York Jobs CEO Council is a great investment in New York’s future. It will scale work-based learning opportunities initially modeled through CareerWise New York and create additional opportunities for partnership with educators and employers to reimagine the local talent development system so that it works better for New Yorkers and NYC businesses. 

The Challenge

We believe the education system must better prepare students for the jobs that exist today and the new skills that are needed to keep up with the evolution of work in the years ahead. With a clearer focus on career readiness, businesses and educators will respond to the changing skill demands of employers by creating solutions that better prepare students for meaningful jobs, and help to ensure companies have the talent they need today and in the future.

The Solution

• In January 2018, The HERE to HERE Business Council formed as a coalition of employers who partnered with educators to ensure students are being properly trained for 21st-century jobs. 

• In addition, employers recognized the need to evaluate their own hiring practices which might unintentionally embed bias and inflate job requirements that preclude qualified job candidates from entering the talent pipeline.

Impact

• Companies have partnered together to create a broader talent ecosystem that develops new approaches, such as youth apprenticeships, for attracting, transferring, and retaining talent. Employers are also challenging historical standards of employment that may no longer apply.
• Employers are organizing by occupation, rather than by individual firm or sector, to develop 3-year competency plans for entry-level positions, providing students and educators clearer signals about the skills that are needed.
• Companies have explored and evaluated some of their hiring practices to help encourage more CUNY students to apply for available positions with Business Council member companies, and help these companies diversify their applicant pool for entry-level positions and reduce employer bias in identifying potential talent.
• The New York City public K-12 schools, the City University of New York system, and the workforce ecosystem have more support in preparing students for educational, career, and economic success through partnership, collaboration, and mutual accountability.
• The education system is better able to accommodate lifelong learners–workers who must retrain to keep up with the changing skill needs of the workplace.
• NYC DOE and CUNY students are better positioned to successfully enter the workforce, build a professional network, and pursue meaningful careers that are aligned with their passions and interests.