MEDIA ADVISORY

For Release:  December 7, 2016

Nassau Community College Partners with Bank of America, the Mexican Consulate and the Association of Higher Education to Offer Free Hospitality Career Training Program for Latinos 

Who: Nassau Community College, Bank of America, the Association of Continuing Higher Education, and the IME Becas Program, through the Mexican Consulate

What: Announcement of a free hospitality career training course for Latinos

When: Wednesday, December 7, 2016, at 11:15 a.m.

Where: The 11th floor of the Tower Building on the campus of NCC

Why: A career training course has been developed to prepare Latino immigrants and first-generation Americans in the hospitality industry to improve their career prospects and help move them into the middle class.

Garden City, NY – Nassau Community College's Center for Workforce Development, in partnership with the Bank of America and the IME Becas Program — through the Mexican Consulate — announced at a press conference today that it will offer a free career-training course specifically designed to prepare Latino immigrants and first-generation Americans in the hospitality industry to improve their career prospects and help move them into the middle class.

Students will be offered a free 147-hour instructional course at NCC to improve their language, math, computer, customer service and hospitality skills. This will enable them to advance up the career ladder in the hospitality industry. Students who successfully complete the 147 hours of free classroom instruction will receive a Certificate of Completion, and will be eligible to sit for the SafeServe® exam to earn national certification in food handling.

The program, which will run from January 10, 2017 to May 18, 2017, is designed to promote advancement in the hospitality industry which leads to higher wages, promotions and entrée into the middle class. The instruction will be provided by Nassau Community College instructors.

"Nassau Community College offers a wide variety of programs which provide critical workforce skills to our students, which in turn provides properly trained and qualified workers to our local hospitality industries here on Long Island and beyond.

Partnering with community-oriented Bank of America, and the Mexican Consulate, in conjunction with the IME Becas Program, will provide a critical hand-up to members of our Latino community to compete and prosper in the ever-growing hospitality industry here on Long Island," said Dr. W. Hubert Keen, President of Nassau Community College.

Bank of America Long Island President Bob Isaksen concurred. "Education paves the way for a thriving community, and Nassau Community College's partnership with Bank of America, the Mexican Consulate and the IME Becas Program will help hospitality workers on Long Island achieve financial and educational success. By supporting our workforce and helping individuals achieve greater economic independence, our entire community benefits."

Echoing President Keen's sentiments, Consul General Diego Gomez Pickering noted that, "The Consulate General of Mexico in New York seeks to empower Mexicans residing in the tri-state area, supporting and promoting programs like the Hospitality Career Pathway Program that help promote labor mobility and provide better job opportunities for the immigrant community."

ACHE Immediate Past President Paula Hogard stated, "The Association of Continuing Higher Education institutional mini-grants are awarded to initiatives that advance the goals of lifelong learning and improve the lives of adult learners. The awards committee felt that by adding employment readiness workshops to an already outstanding enterprise, The Center for Workforce Development at Nassau Community College captured the spirit and purpose of the grant. We look forward to hearing the stories of how lives may have been changed through this exciting initiative."

Through the generosity of Bank of America, the IME Becas Program, and the Mexican Consulate, Nassau Community College will provide career training and access to Latino workers and first-generation Americans whose only goal is to improve their lives, the lives of their families, and to contribute to the Long Island hospitality industry as a whole.

For additional information regarding the Hospitality Career Pathway Program, please visit ncc.edu/workforce development, call the Center for Workforce development at 516.572.7487, or email at cwd@ncc.edu.

Media Contact: Alicia Steger 516.572.9634 alicia.steger@ncc.edu

About Nassau Community College Nassau Community College, part of the State University of New York, is an institution where more than 20,000 full- and part-time students and approximately10,000 continuing and professional students start and continue their successful journey through higher education. More than 70 fields of study are offered on a 225-acre campus located in the center of Long Island. As the largest single-campus two-year college in New York State, Nassau Community College maintains a national reputation for excellence.

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