Although one in 10 New Yorkers are unemployed, high-tech companies here still

Although one in 10 New Yorkers are unemployed, high-tech companies here still struggle to hire employees with the qualifications and practical skills they need, Sing Tao Daily reported. A new program seeks to address the disconnect between a college education and real work skills that often emerges when graduates step into the high-tech industry.

Earlier this month, New York City officials and representatives from the high-tech industry announced an initiative that would connect college students with companies in the field, by having the companies work directly with college departments, reported Sing Tao Daily’s Rong Xiaoqing. An excerpt from the Sing Tao Daily article, which focuses on Asian-American students, is translated below.

In recent years, New York City has been focusing on developing high-tech businesses and has become one of the nation’s high-tech centers, second only to Silicon Valley. The high-tech industry has created many jobs for New York. There are currently 1,700 high-tech digital companies, and among them, 932 are hiring. However, the New York high-tech industry has found it difficult to find qualified people, resulting in many unfilled positions. This is mainly due to the disconnect between the skill sets of graduates from high-tech majors and the qualifications demanded by the industry.

Last October, City Council Speaker [Christine] Quinn spoke about proposing training to mitigate the huge gap between a college education and the job market.

This training initiative includes two parts.

The first part is to have New York City universities work with Tipping Point Partners and other local high-tech companies. Through computer science departments, the companies will provide undergraduate and graduate students practical training via the Internet, classrooms, or labs. Students will be divided into teams of two to work together to solve real-life problems in order to cultivate their communication and management skills.

The second part is for city universities to partner with high-tech companies such as Coalition for Queens and Skillshare to provide training to students and communities. This plan will be implemented at Queens College. The training will help develop skills in computer programming, marketing, and entrepreneurship. According to Quinn, New York has an unemployment rate of over 9 percent. Yet, there is still a big shortage of skilled workers in the high-tech industry. The only way to help people to prosper in the high-tech industry in New York is to equip people with practical skills.

The primary partners of this initiative are the founder of Tipping Point Partners, Art Chang, and the founder of Coalition for Queens, Jukay Hsu. As Asian-Americans, they provided pertinent suggestions for Asian-Americans in the high-tech field.

Born in Taiwan, Hsu came to the United States when he was only two or three. Growing up in Queens, Hsu started his high-tech development business after graduating from Harvard with an economics degree.

He indicated that there is currently a huge shortage of high-tech workers. Many companies are only able to find one qualified candidate out of four openings. However, for those graduating from a high-tech major, mastering technical skills is not enough. They also need to have the ability to work in a team and know the market, which is exactly what many graduates lack.

According to Chang, many Asian students pursue a doctoral degree to become an expert in their field without knowing that industry qualifications for high-tech workers have been changing.

“My father graduated from engineering school in 1967,” he said. “At that time, engineers only needed to work hard and work independently. Nowadays, software engineers also need to know how to market their products, which make their social and cultural skills more critical.”

MetroFocus covered the announcement as well, and added details on technological initiatives focused on Queens.

The Coalition for Queens, a nonprofit organization that formed last year following the announcement about plans for a tech campus on Roosevelt Island, will also be offering affordable courses. The coalition’s purpose is to support a growing tech entrepreneurial ecosystem in Queens.

Jukay Hsu, the founder of the coalition, said they will be offering two or three classes this fall as part of a pilot program and will continue to grow after that. They have formed partnerships with tech companies like Skillshare to teach the classes.

Hsu added that Queens was the appropriate next place to push for more tech, adding that more students study computer science at Queens College than at any other university in the metropolitan area.

Tech has “an incredible potential to empower communities,” he said.

The news magazine also provided the source of Quinn’s statement that more than half the city’s high-tech companies are hiring.

Of the more than 1,700 digital companies in the city, 932 of them are hiring, she said. Quinn’s facts were gleaned from the recent release of the Made in NY Digital Map, which shows where the city’s tech companies, investors and incubator spaces are, and which companies are hiring.