NYC partners with college to help city workers get free education

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- New York City is partnering with a local college to help city workers go back to school and get their high school diploma and college credit.

Louis Molina, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services, and Dr. Charles Gibbs, the president of the Metropolitan College of New York, said they could easily have become another statistic.

Molina is from the Bronx and Gibbs is from Montclair, New Jersey. But because of education, they both say they are now at the top of their professions. They have joined forces to help hundreds of New York City workers have an opportunity to finish high school and even go to college at no cost to the employee. 

The Department of Citywide Administrative Services has partnered with the Metropolitan College of New York to launch a groundbreaking pilot program for city workers, giving them a chance to earn their high school equivalency along with 27 college credits over the course of three semesters. It’s a program called EPIC.

Additionally, Molina is hiring. He is in charge of the city’s workforce of 300,000. He says there are 3,000 jobs open, including 1,200 jobs that are paying in the six figures. Some of the jobs include senior agency attorneys, civil engineers, architects, and analysts. 

The city is looking to fill the jobs immediately. While experience matters, Molina said the highest-paying jobs in the city require education. Molina said that’s why this collaboration is so critical.