Brooklyn Tech Training Center to Serve as Career Pipeline
By Roxanne Squires
NEW YORK CITY — The doors to the Brooklyn STEAM Center have officially opened; a new hub to provide career technical training to students from eight local NYC public high schools in a rigorous professional setting.
Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) joined Deputy Mayor Glen, NYC Schools Chancellor Carranza and Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams on Feb. 11, 2019 for the celebratory ribbon-cutting.
The innovative model, a partnership between BNYDC and NYC DOE, with support from Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams, is the first-of-its-kind in New York City and takes the Career Technical Education model a step further, bringing students interested in cutting-edge manufacturing and design fields closer to companies in need of highly-skilled workers.
The $17 million Brooklyn STEAM Center, supported with $12 million from NYC DOE and $5 million from Borough President Adams, will serve as a learning center for up to 300 high school juniors and seniors interested multiple industries, including computer science, design and engineering, culinary arts, construction technology, and film and media.
The program seeks to help students develop skills and create pathways to careers in growing industries.
The 30,000-square-foot Brooklyn STEAM Center sits on the third floor of Brooklyn Navy Yard’s newly-renovated Building 77, featuring professional work spaces and equipment for each of the career pathways, including a professional kitchen, a sound stage, multiple computer labs, and construction and fabrication shops.
The STEAM Center will advance a model for career and technical education that more closely ties industry professionals and employers to students and educators.
Students from eight Brooklyn public high schools will attend the STEAM Center for two-year programs during their junior and senior year, spending half of their time at their home high schools and spending the other half of their time at STEAM developing skills within one of five industry pathways. They will apply these skills directly by completing projects in a real-world environment, taught by teachers with experience in their respective fields.
Students will earn industry-specific certifications and develop relationships with leading industry professionals within the Yard through tours, interviews, job shadowing, and internships.
Upon graduation, these students will be equipped with the skills, networks, and portfolios needed to pursue their field of interest, whether through immediate entry into the workforce, furthering their education setting, or both.
The STEAM Center will work hand-in-hand with BNYDC’s Employment Center, which prepares local residents to apply for and secure jobs with Navy Yard tenants as well as provides internships to young people in several industries including manufacturing, media, design and more.
New York-based multidisciplinary design firm WXY was selected as the architect for the new learning center and began work on the new center in Fall 2018.