At Queens Job Training Program, Immigrant Workers Learn to Navigate Life in NYC

“For people who migrate—who feel lost—all of this is new,” said Luis Florez, a 37-year-old from Colombia who took part in the program in 2024, where he learned what a credit score is, how to open a local bank account and take the city’s subways without getting lost.

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There’s no manual or crash course on how to live in New York City. And life in the Big Apple can be even more difficult for new immigrant arrivals and those who speak languages other than English.

That’s what New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), a nonprofit in Jackson Heights, has been working to deliver: a workforce training program to teach immigrant (as well as non-immigrant) New Yorkers not just how to get a job, but how to navigate life in the city.

The NICE Pre-Apprenticeship for Life and Work program provides tools for using and understanding New York’s school, healthcare, housing, and transportation systems. It also prepares participants for jobs and trains them for today’s digital world and labor market, and includes a know-your-rights session on immigration.

“For people who migrate—who feel lost—all of this is new: it’s like being reborn because one doesn’t even know the language,” said Luis Florez, a 37-year-old from Colombia who took part in the program in 2024, where he learned what a credit score is, how to open a bank account, and how to use the city’s buses and subways without getting lost. 

For years, organizations have seen that workforce training in a single subject—such as Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) certification, required for construction jobs—leaves out many other areas that affect people’s lives and livelihoods. For new immigrants, even getting a coveted work permit is no guarantee they’ll find stable employment.  

“We have found that even people with the paperwork can still not get a job,” said Hildalyn Colon Hernandez, NICE’s chief operations and strategic officer.

NICE launched the Pre-Apprenticeship for Life and Work in 2024, and has been quietly developing it and experimenting with different pilots for more than a year, Colon Hernandez said. 

More than 30 participants of various ages and backgrounds recently completed the three-week program in February. They include Marioxi, who arrived in the city five months ago from Venezuela and preferred to withhold her last name.

“I was blessed by God to enter in January,” she said, part of the last group of people who entered the U.S. through the CBP One app, which temporarily allowed migrants to book appointments at points of entry to claim asylum or request parole, until the Trump administration quickly removed the appointment-scheduling feature. “Blessed with one of the last appointments,” Marioxi said.

Like several other participants in the program, she learned about it through word of mouth. In her case, a relative who had known about NICE for over a decade advised her to enroll in an OSHA construction certification course.

There were no openings for these, she remembered being told, so NICE offered her a spot in the Life and Work course. Marioxi, 32, has been looking for work after finishing a seasonal Christmas job at a restaurant, and hopes the course will open doors for her. 

It helped her polish up her resume and prepare for a job interview, including through a mock interview. She is now taking NICE English classes in the afternoons. “I really enjoy interacting, talking, and getting to know people,” Marioxi said. “I really enjoy customer service and communication jobs.”

In one of the sessions City Limits attended, Maria Ceballos, NICE’s workforce counselor, conducted activities to build on “soft” skills, like problem-solving and critical thinking. She asked participants to navigate imaginary scenarios (such as surviving a zombie apocalypse or crossing a jungle) using random materials inside a box (a flashlight, tape, batteries, black bags, among others).

“That [activity] is the one we enjoy the most because they use all their skills,” Ceballos said. “What I have observed through my work experience is that we often believe we need a college degree to qualify for a job, but often the most important thing is the skills we have and being able to apply them. These can be technical skills and soft skills that are intertwined.”

The course also seeks to inform participants about the rights and protections they’re entitled to in New York City, since immigrants—especially those who face language barriers—can often be more vulnerable to scams or paying unnecessary fees. 

During another class City Limits attended on housing, for example, most participants still believed they had to pay fees for real estate brokers hired by landlords when leasing an apartment—unaware of the Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses (FARE) Act, which the city implemented last year banning that practice.

While the program doesn’t guarantee job placement, several participants have found work, including as teaching assistants in city schools, NICE said. Health insurance provider Metro Plus Health, whose staff volunteered to do mock interviews with program participants in the most recent cohort, expressed interest and asked for the resumes of a few people, Colon Hernandez noted.

For some, it’s the first formal job interview they’ve ever had. “They [the participants] have said, ‘You are the first [person] that actually has done an interview with me, and I’ve been here in this country for 10 years,'” Colon Hernandez recalled hearing one student share.

The organization also shares job offers via email and encourages former participants to apply. That’s how Florez found out about a job at La Guardia Airport with full benefits.

He was originally looking for work in construction, but needed OSHA certification to land one. NICE didn’t have spots available for that training at the time, but there were still spots open in this new workshop, which lasted five weeks back then, ending with OSHA classes.

In the end, Florez said, he received his OSHA certification, but never used it. After finishing the course, he landed a dishwashing job at LaGuardia Airport, where he has been working since July.  

Despite now having a stable job, he and his family—his wife and daughter—have not yet managed to leave the city’s shelter system, where they arrived in 2024. He has recommended the NICE workshop to his wife, but she hasn’t been able to commit because she needs to take care of their daughter after school.

“Rent is very high here,” Florez admitted.

Before moving to New York, Florez said he was a pharmacist for more than 10 years in Colombia. His situation is not uncommon, says Macarena Moraga, NICE’s grants, research, and evaluation director. 

“Many people have already built their careers in their home countries, but when they arrive, they have few opportunities to use their skills or show what they can do,” Moraga said.

NICE is planning to hold four more sessions of the Pre-Apprenticeship for Life and Work program. For those interested, the best way to sign up is to go to the organization in person, ask about the program, and bring the necessary documents (such as a photo ID and work permit, Green Card, or U.S. passport).

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