Our Program

The results are in: The Way to Work is making a real impact in the lives of New York City’s young adults. On average more than 83% of The Way to Work’s participants completed the intensive, 15-week career training and education program. 70% of graduates are placed in jobs and 80% of those placed are still employed after a year.

More than 67% of clients passed their GED and many go on to college.

Modeling “the Way to Work” from day one, clients are required to wear proper business attire, punch a time clock, and be punctual. On their first day, each client is assigned to a Career Manager who works with them to set monthly career and educational goals, review progress, solve problems, and create a lasting bond for the length of The Way to Work’s one-and-a half-year training, placement and retention program.

Located in an office building in the heart of Manhattan’s financial district, The Way to Work’s training facility creates a professional, uplifting environment. Clients participate in the program full-time from Monday through Friday, 9am to 4:30pm for the 15 weeks of training and 3 weeks of job placement activities.

The Way to Work takes a sector-based approach to job training. We work closely with an employer advisory group to have a committee that researches and identifies opportunities within critical industries, but also to continue developing training programs that will give our graduates a competitive edge in one of five large and growing sectors of New York City’s economy: healthcare, computers/office technology, security/public safety and customer service.

The Way to Work’s career training curriculum is also competency-based; clients perform a series of tasks in order to demonstrate mastery of the required skills needed for the job (e.g. basic terminology for medical administrative trainees). These competencies are designed based on input from The Way to Work’s large database of employers. The Way to Work’s career tracks are also industry-certified by trade groups such as the National HealthCareers Association and the State Department of Corrections.

For those seeking assistance obtaining a GED, The Way to Work offers its clients three hours of academically rigorous pre-GED or GED prep classes per day in the subjects of English, math, social studies, science, and test-taking strategy in partnership with the NYC Department of Education GED Plus program.  In Fall 2008, 100% of The Way to Work participants who took the exam also passed it.

The Way to Work believes in providing well-rounded on-the-job training, so we also instill clients with soft skills such as workplace communication, conflict resolution, customer service, how to write a winning resume and interview for a job, as well as computer literacy (Microsoft Office Suite, data entry, etc) and document imaging.