The New York Public Library Presents First Career Resources Fair for Teens Highlighting Career Paths That Do Not Require a College Degree

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APRIL 28, 2023—For the first time in its 125-year old history, The New York Public Library (NYPL) hosted a Career Resources Fair for Teens, part of the Library’s Tisch Youth Education Programs, to help young people explore career pathways that do not require a college degree. The inaugural event, which comes at a time of soaring costs in higher education and crushing student debt, was held today at the Library’s iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. 

Attendees included hundreds of New York City high school students from all five boroughs, who learned important skills like how to write a resume, get one’s working papers, and create a LinkedIn profile, as well as information about careers in industries such as esthetics, healthcare, the performing arts, agriculture, and more. The Career Resources Fair for Teens also included a natural haircutting station in which students saw first-hand how to cut hair. Many of these fields are hungry for workers, and pay competitive entry-level salaries. More information on the specific types of job opportunities presented to the teens below. 

As an institution, we’ve had many college fairs over the years, but we decided that to truly prepare our young people for the future we had to help them learn about all kinds of possibilities for their futures – and that includes not going to college. Certainly college is important for some people, but for some it isn’t the right next step. Our job is to help young people know the options out there to make an informed decision that works for them," said Brian Bannon, the Merryl and James Tisch Director of Branch Libraries and Education at The New York Public Library.   

The Library partnered with dozens of organizations to provide information on workplace development, vocational training, and internship opportunities. Teens learned about unique opportunities such as:

• Change Food for Good, which provides hands-on, interdisciplinary training for young adults interested in gaining agriculture, construction, and technology skills; 
• the Roundabout Theater Company, a new alternative to training behind-the-scenes theater technicians; and 
• NPower, creating pathways to economic prosperity through free classes in cybersecurity, tech fundamentals, and cloud computing, supporting digital careers for military veterans and young adults from underserved communities.
• Fire Department of the City of New York - Office of Recruitment and Retention, the largest Fire Department in the United States and universally recognized as the world’s busiest and most highly skilled emergency response agency, providing fire protection and other critical public safety services to residents and visitors in the five boroughs. 

The event will also feature workshops and activity stations where students can access professional development tools, such as how to write a great resume, practicing interview skills, or personality tests to help teens identify potential careers they might enjoy.

The Career Resources Fair marks the start of Ready, Set, Career month. Throughout the month of May, libraries will be offering workshops for teens to learn about different career paths and develop career readiness skills, including a career panel series, resume writing and LinkedIn workshops, and much more. 

The Career Resources Fair—hosted by the Library’s College and Career Pathways program, which is supported by The Helen Gurley Brown Foundation—is part of Teens 360°, a Tisch Youth Education program, which the Library designed to support teen patrons. The enhanced resources and services provided by Teens 360° include the opening last month of a newly-enhanced Teen Center at its Bloomingdale branch in Manhattan—one of 19 teen spaces opening this year throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Funded by the city, the Best Buy Foundation and the Joly Family Foundation, and Google.org, these spaces are part of NYPL’s Teens 360º initiative, led by Brian Bannon, the Merryl and James Tisch Director of Branch Libraries and Education. The dedicated teen centers offer holistic support packages for teens with a focus on interest-driven learning that supports digital literacy and technology skills, civic engagement in collaborative spaces that foster their creativity.

These programs and initiatives are part of the Library’s Tisch Youth Education Programs, led by the Merryl and James Tisch Director of Branch Libraries and Education. Major support for educational programming is provided by Merryl H. and James S. Tisch.

Major support for children's and young adult programming is provided by the Andreas C. Dracopoulos Family Endowment for Young Audiences.

Lead support for Teens 360º is provided by the City of New York, the Best Buy Foundation and the Joly Family Foundation, and Google.org.

College & Career Pathways has been made possible thanks to the generous support of The Helen Gurley Brown Foundation.

 

About The New York Public Library

For over 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With over 90 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars. The New York Public Library receives approximately 16 million visits through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.