How a New Orleans nonprofit trains hundreds of high school students a year for new jobs
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Te'mon Crawford raises his hand during a training session at the New Orleans Career Center. Photo courtesy of NOCC
When Te'mon Crawford saw the New Orleans Career Center move into the fully renovated Tremé building that once housed McDonogh 35 Senior High School, he thought about his own new start and what he could do with his future.
"They were … invested in people wanting to better their futures," Crawford, a recent high school graduate, tells Axios New Orleans. "I wanted to see, how can this better me and how can this better my professional craft and what I wanted to do?"
Why it matters: He's not alone.
The big picture: About half of New Orleans' jobs are considered "mid-skill," which means they require more than a high school degree, but not necessarily a bachelor's degree, says Jake Gleghorn, NOCC's strategy officer.
- "That's the sweet spot," Gleghorn says, for the center, and for young people like Crawford.
Zoom in: The NOCC, founded in 2017, offers career and technical education, or CTE, for young New Orleanians who are currently enrolled in or have completed high school. There's training and certifications in the building trades, culinary arts and hospitality management, digital media, engineering and health care.
- Think of it like NOCCA, but instead of arts education, an attendee can finish with certifications in construction, ServSafe food handling or as a medical assistant.
- "These are industry-based credentials," Gleghorn says. "All the classes are taught by professionals who have worked in the industry, which is rare for high school CTE. It's usually taught by a high school teacher."
Crawford saw so much value in the programming, he says, that he returned after graduating from high school to complete additional certification before pursuing a career in electrical work.
- "Getting into the field, seeing what I'm good at, not good at, and being able to learn under someone and taking that knowledge as I get up in rank," Crawford says, is going to help him "be able to pass it down to someone younger."
By the numbers: If NOCC was a standalone school, its 600 or so trainees would make it the city's 10th largest, according to NOLA Public Schools.
- Instead, the program this year draws from 24 of the city's public high schools, and one private school.
- That kind of enrollment means NOCC is easily the largest provider of certifications for the city's high school students. In 2023, the school handed out 77% of the public school total.
- About 60% of the trainees also pursue a traditional four-year college degree, Gleghorn told Axios New Orleans, "so it's much more additive than it is a fork in the road."
Between the lines: Since New Orleans shifted to an all-charter school system in the post-Katrina years, educators have looked to nonprofits to help fill in the gaps that individual schools often have trouble filling on their own, either financially or through limited personnel.
- NOCC, housed in a NOLA Public Schools building and with funding braided together from private and public sources, is one example.
What's next: NOCC is coming to the end of the goals laid out by its most recent strategic plan, so another will soon be in the works.
- That has leaders thinking big picture about what the city needs so NOCC grads have ready-made employment opportunities.
- The idea, Gleghorn says, is to go where the economy goes.
- "We know that there are jobs there, and we know that there are jobs coming," he says, "And so here you are prepared for that. Here's a way to enter the middle class."
Chef Alon Shaya, who credits an early CTE teacher of his own with helping him discover a love for cooking, is holding a benefit Sept. 23 to raise money for NOCC.
- The event includes a four-course meal prepared by Shaya, with dessert prepared by NOCC students.
- Get details.