Q&A
Cancellation of 311 internship program and CUNY's internship strategy
0:48:38
·
3 min
Council Member Eric Dinowitz inquires about the cancellation of the 311 internship program and CUNY's overall internship strategy. Lauren Andersen from CUNY explains the reasoning behind the decision and the university's plans for future internships.
- The 311 internship program is slated to end in March
- CUNY aims to increase paid internships for students from 10% to 30% participation
- CUNY needs to find an additional 32,000 paid internships annually
- The university is focusing on creating internships that are launch pads to jobs aligned with students' degrees
- The 311 internships were not well-aligned with CUNY's priorities for student career development
- CUNY is actively building partnerships with other agencies to grow internship opportunities
- The goal is to maintain or increase the overall number of internship opportunities for CUNY students
Eric Dinowitz
0:48:38
Thank you.
0:48:40
I just want to bring up the 311 internship program.
0:48:44
Can you that's been canceled.
0:48:47
Can you talk a little bit about that?
Lauren Andersen
0:48:49
Yes, I certainly can.
Eric Dinowitz
0:48:50
Thank
Lauren Andersen
0:48:50
you.
0:48:51
So right now, it's slated to end in March.
0:48:53
And essentially, CUNY has put at the core of its strategic plan a desire to increase paid internships for students.
0:49:01
We've set out a bold goal around that, growing from 10% to 30% of all students participating in these paid internships.
0:49:08
What that means in terms of absolute numbers because of the size of our organization is that we need to find an additional 32,000 paid internships every year in a city that only supports 11,000 of them posted online.
0:49:21
So we know that a lot of what we have to do is not just accept what's in the market, but also create these opportunities for students through programs that we run across CUNY.
0:49:29
Today, those programs serve about 45100 students.
0:49:32
We're really interested in doubling that number over the next until 2030.
0:49:38
In order to do that with limited resources, we have to make some tough decisions about maximizing the amount of that money that goes to student wages and making sure that those internships are actually launch pads to jobs.
0:49:50
And what we found is that in some of our internships, students who had bachelor's degrees were being aligned with jobs that don't require any degree to achieve them.
0:49:58
And so 311, that collaboration is part of a much broader program called Kinney internship program that serves 655 students each year.
0:50:07
We are so excited to grow that and continue to work towards it.
0:50:11
When we looked at the actual jobs that students were in, the 311 jobs were not well aligned with the priorities that we have.
Eric Dinowitz
0:50:20
So they were replaced.
0:50:22
The the the, I guess, the positions for the thrown internship were replaced with other internships that do require degrees?
0:50:28
Is that how the math works out?
Lauren Andersen
0:50:29
Our intention is to, yes, grow other internship opportunities that are more aligned with student career aspirations and the degrees that they have.
Eric Dinowitz
0:50:36
So just to be clear, it's not a cut in the number of internships.
0:50:39
It's not a cut in the program.
0:50:40
You're just shifting resources to internships that do require those bachelor's degrees that you're providing at CUNY.
Lauren Andersen
0:50:47
We are ending the internships in the 311 call center as part of this program.
0:50:51
So those numbers at 311 are no longer gonna continue after March.
Eric Dinowitz
0:50:55
No.
0:50:56
I I understand what I'm saying is however many students, how many positions there are at 311.
0:51:01
Your the number of students receiving internships aren't decreasing.
0:51:07
Those throw in positions are gonna be shifted to another agency or service that do requires the the degrees that you provide at CUNY.
Lauren Andersen
0:51:15
So we are actively building other partnerships with agencies to grow that.
0:51:20
The the way that the funding works is it's tied to each agency.
0:51:23
Each agency contributes the funds for their own interns.
0:51:27
So we can't move 311's funding to a different agency.
0:51:30
But, yes, we are growing our partnerships with agencies overall so that the number of opportunities for community students does not go down.
Eric Dinowitz
0:51:37
Okay.
0:51:37
So I just wanna be clear.
0:51:39
Even with the the ending of this program, the number of CUNY students, there there won't be fewer CUNY students for with opportunities for internships.
Lauren Andersen
0:51:49
Right.
0:51:49
That's our intent.
Eric Dinowitz
0:51:50
Okay.
