"SUNY Works"Public-Private Job Training Program Awarded $500,000 to Support Statewide Expansion

Carnegie Corporation grant will give students more opportunities for paid internships, on-the-job career training

Albany – State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher today announced that the Carnegie Corporation has awarded the university system a $500,000 grant to support SUNY Works, which will bring cooperative education to college campuses statewide.

As part of the program, SUNY colleges throughout New York have established partnerships with local businesses and employers to formally integrate academic coursework with paid, on-the-job work experience in the students’ field of study. Current business partners include: Global Foundries, General Electric, IBM, Motorola, and Chevron.

“With proven success in 27 countries and counting, cooperative education is heralded by many as one of the most effective and unique academic programs of our time,” said Chancellor Zimpher. “SUNY Works promises to have a positive, lasting effect on the way New York’s public colleges and universities prepare students in all disciplines for successful careers and meet the needs of New York’s workforce. We are deeply grateful to Carnegie Corporation for this support.”

“SUNY’s leadership in advancing cooperative education partnerships, leveraging public-private partnerships, and fully engaging businesses to develop new educational delivery models that will help meet the workforce needs of tomorrow is an asset to our business operations and critically important to establishing a strong foundation for a new economy,” said Emily Reilly, director of human resources, GLOBALFOUNDRIES.   

“SUNY Works is changing the way we deliver higher education across New York State, giving students a huge advantage, not only by allowing them to earn an income during college, but also by providing them with hands-on experience and training that nearly always results in a job offer after graduation. This is an outstanding example of SUNY’s systemness at work,” said SUNY Senior Vice Chancellor for Community Colleges and the Education Pipeline Johanna Duncan-Poitier.

Today, the majority of college students—as many as 70 to 80 percent—work while enrolled in classes.

SUNY Works will provide those students the opportunity to marry their need to generate income while enrolled in college with work experience that will make them employable following graduation. Seven out of every 10 co-op students are offered positions by the employers for which they worked while enrolled in the program.

In April, nine SUNY campuses launched cooperative education programs supported by a Lumina Foundation grant that have attracted students and employers in many regions throughout New York State, with  six additional SUNY campuses set to be added this Spring. The Carnegie Corporation grant will support and solidify the infrastructure necessary for full scale up of SUNY Works across the system with a particular focus on expanding to SUNY’s baccalaureate-degree granting colleges and universities, over the next two years.

According to Carnegie Corporation, their support for the initiative is driven in part by SUNY Works’ focus on addressing the rapid and dislocating change in educational requirements, which has resulted in the skills and experiences—that once served working adults well—being eclipsed by the enormous economic and technological changes in the workplace, especially in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). 

About Carnegie Corporation of New York

Carnegie Corporation of New York, which was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding," is one of the oldest, largest and most influential of American grantmaking foundations. The foundation makes grants to promote international peace and to advance education and knowledge - primary concerns to which founder Andrew Carnegie devoted the foundation.

About the State University of New York

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating nearly 468,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses with nearly 3 million alumni around the globe. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu.