The New York State Office for New Americans (ONA), The Cooper Union and Bnai Zion Foundation opened registration today for free professional courses and job placement assistance for high-skilled New Americans for the Fall 2014 semester. This innovative public-private partnership with the Retraining Program for Immigrant Engineers is part of ONA’s focus on developing and leveraging the professional skills of New Americans.

All participants must have completed courses of study in their home country and be seeking retraining in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Participants must also be permanent residents of the U.S. and have work authorization. To get more information and check for available courses, please visit their Web site. To schedule an appointment or to determine eligibility, please call 212.725.1211, ext. 6245 or 646.485.7982, Monday through Thursday (9:00am to 5:00pm) and Friday (9:00am to 2:00pm).

“These courses are an important vehicle in expanding work opportunities for New Americans who already possess the skills our State’s employer’s need,” said Jorge I. Montalvo, Director of the New York State Office for New Americans. “We encourage eligible New Americans to enroll for these courses in order to maintain self-reliance and economic independence through productive employment in their chosen field relating to any of the STEM disciplines.”

Eligible immigrants are able to enroll in introductory and high-technology courses designed to update participants’ engineering, computer programming, and business skills. Classes are taught by The Cooper Union faculty and experts in the field and program offerings are flexible based on demand in the marketplace and needs of students. Courses this semester include:

• Analytical Chemistry: Spectroscopy
• HPLC-Training (for chemists)
• Green Building Guidelines & Environmental Safety
• Heating, Ventilation, Air-Condition & Refrigeration
• Building Operation, Maintenance & Safety Regulations
• National Electrical Code (NEC) & its general applications
National Electrical Code (NEC) & its specific applicationsBridge, Highway, Tunnels and Buildings: Professional Practice for Cost Estimating
• AISC Structural Steel Design
• ACI Structural Concrete Design
• Introduction to AutoCAD for engineers
• Advanced AutoCAD and Revit
• Linux (UNIX) Administration
• Data Architecture Principles, Data Structure and SQL
• Java Programming
• Microsoft .NET and C#
• Software Quality Assurance – Manual Testing
• Software Quality Assurance – Automated Testing
• Android Software Development

Established in 1987, the Retraining Program for Immigrant Engineers provides high-skilled New Americans with courses and workshops aimed at equipping them with tools to strengthen their opportunities for meaningful employment. The program is offered free of charge. Since its inception, the program has enrolled over 4,200 immigrant engineers and has placed more than 2,460 in jobs that have improved their professional and economic circumstances.

As part of the partnership and the program, The Cooper Union provides students with instruction and training through its Albert Nerken School of Engineering, one of America’s foremost undergraduate engineering schools, and offers approximately 30 courses per academic year. The Bnai Zion Foundation provides students with the skills necessary to negotiate their way into the marketplace and provides personalized career counseling and support to immigrant engineers, while they are enrolled in the program and thereafter. The Foundation also coordinates job referrals, contacts companies about the details of job openings, and provides students with resume-writing assistance and one-on-one interview advice. The New York State Office for New Americans provides classroom space, tablet computers, and other equipment so that additional classes are offered in order to ensure greater access for high-skilled New Americans.

Further, the New York State Office for New Americans assists graduates of the program with securing positions in the STEM sectors by linking them to the State’s many job placement services. Launched in March of 2013 by Governor Cuomo, ONA is the first statewide office dedicated to assisting our state's immigrants in their efforts to contribute to the economy and become a part of the family of New York.