New Haven values the wealth of talent already present in the city, and continues to work to train, connect, and support residents in finding competitive jobs. See below for some current initiatives in the bioscience, tech, and hospitality sectors, which is just a snapshot of the programming the City provides.

Educational Opportunities

Higher Education

New Haven's universities provide a platform from which the city can compete in the global arena. Eight colleges and universities call the New Haven region home and are major drivers for the local and regional economy. Undergraduate and graduate programs at these universities bring students from all over the country and all over the world to New Haven. Many graduates stay and make New Haven their homes for years to come.

Continuing Education and Certification Programs

Bioscience Career Ladder

New Haven is home to the largest concentration of life science companies in Connecticut and the second largest bioscience cluster in New England. The city has worked diligently to bring together workforce development partners to categorize job typologies, bolster related educational fields, and create specific job training opportunities wherever possible. Three notable initiatives underway are:

• A partnership with BioCT, a statewide advocacy organization, to assist New Haven-based companies with key capital purchases to support local operations and stimulate job growth
• A partnership with Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) to design new academic programs that leverage the university’s new science building, an over 100,000 s.f. science and research facility located in West Rock neighborhood. The City and SCSU entered into a partnership to make the following career academic pathways available for students completing their studies in New Haven: BS in Biotechnology, Chemistry, and STEM. To support SCSU in this effort, the City, gave the university an initial start-up grant and helped assemble an industry advisory committee.
• A partnership is also underway with the developers of the in-development 101 College Street biotech corporate building project where the Community Benefit Fund will be allocated to promote community startups in their incubator space. The building will also house learning spaces for K-12 New Haven classes, and they will continue to promote and expand bioscience ladders in local New Haven high schools.

Tech Career Ladder

The City Continues to emphasize the importance of developing the tech ladder as a way of attracting tech jobs to New Haven. Recently, the City has succeeded in persuading its private sector partners to contribute to workforce development efforts by making educational opportunities in coding available to members of the community.

Gateway Community College launched a new “Learn to Code” certificate course, with tuition scholarships available for New Haven residents. The course launched in Feb. 2016. All of the graduates found work in the New Haven area in tech roles. The success of the Web Development Certificate program led Gateway’s Advisory Committee to offer two more tech related certificate courses, Business Analysis and Web Design.

• The Grove coworking space continues to work on the A-100 coding project, a software apprenticeship program that provides technical training to aspiring software developers to get herm startup-ready, then matches them up with paid internships at local startups
• The District tech/innovation campus offers a coding bootcamp to ambitious students through the Holberton School, enabling their graduates to gain programming skills that are competitive in the global market
• Workforce Alliance, a partner of American Jobs Center network, applied for a federal “Tech Hire” grant to introduce tech-related workforce training programs for its clientele at the New Haven Adult Education Center

Hospitality Career Pipeline

The recent surge of hotel development will lead to a dramatic increase in hotel and hospitality industry jobs. Currently, with 314 hotel rooms planned or approved, New Haven is preparing to add between 471 and 942 hotel and hospitality jobs to its economy.

To best develop a hospitality jobs pipeline, the City urged Workforce Alliance to create a training course specifically for hospitality management. Thus, in partnership with the University of New Haven’s Hospitality Program, Workforce Alliance graduated its first cohort of 24 students in July 2018.

Upon completion of the Hospitality and Tourism Management program, students receive two ServSafe certifications, recognition from the American hotel and Lodging Industry, and access to the region’s largest and most prestigious hotel and hospitality employers.