Christopher Malone (Consortium for Worker Education) on 10-point green workforce strategy

Good afternoon, Chair Wan, Chair Maloney, and the members of the committee.

My name is Dr.

Christopher Malone, and I serve as the Deputy Executive Director of Policy and Education Innovation at the Consortium for Worker Education.

From CWE's work on the ground, one thing is clear.

Local Law 97 is already driving urgent workforce demand, and our current pipeline is not yet scaled or aligned to meet it.

So to meet this moment and in the implementation of the Jeep, we are submitting, for the record, a 10-point green workforce acceleration strategy.

For the sake of time, I just want to focus on six of those items.

First, scale the pipeline.

The city must invest not just in apprenticeships, but in tens of thousands of pre-apprenticeship opportunities to meet demand.

Second, align the system to meet real demand.

Workforce investments must be explicitly tied to Local Law 97 implementation, including tracking and placements into priority occupations like electricians, HVAC technicians, and building operators.

Third, create accountability through data.

CWE recommends a public-facing green workforce dashboard to track outcomes, placements, apprenticeship, entry, and retention so progress can be measured in real time.

We do this with our Jobs to Build On program and would be happy to connect to discuss the requisite information the council should mandate the city provide through a reporting bill.

Number four, strengthen the front door.

Workforce One centers should implement

Clear apprenticeship readiness standards and referral pathways aligned with union entry requirements.

Fifth, invest in workers'ability to complete training.

Scaling childcare, ESOL, and other supports is essential to ensuring New Yorkers can actually

access these careers, and lastly, advance a near-term workforce surge strategy to rapidly expand training capacity over the next two to three years.

As I said, we are submitting and writing a 10-point plan.

I don't have time to go through all of those, but I and CWE would be happy to work with the council and your committees to put these ideas into actionable policy.

Thanks so much.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next up, we have Jonathan Spooner, Sindri Manazanares, Jake Douglas Boren, and Sophia Oliveira.

You may begin, yeah.