They make up the first class for the city’s inaugural Information Technology Management Academy, which officially opened its doors Thursday.
The academy joins a host of other programs across the country offering educations in government technology, though this effort has a relatively sharp focus on the people-to-people aspects of public-sector IT work.
“Our goal is for participants to complete this program with stronger management skills and an expanded knowledge base so they can meet the daily challenges they face in increasing productivity and delivering excellence in IT services,” Ray Legendre, communications director of the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI), told Government Technology via email.
The student-professionals in the program — they were chosen from a field of more 100 nominees — represent 19 “diverse city entities” and have jobs that are director-level or above, according to an announcement about the program.
Once a week until Oct. 30, participants will have lessons anchored to the program’s three “core areas,” according to the announcement: Building and using human resources; understanding how city systems and processes operate; and absorbing best practices from IT leaders.
Participants will study what the statement called a “tailored curriculum centered around strengthening managerial skills, enhancing strategic thinking, and deepening understanding of citywide technology operations.”
Another goal is “enhancing emotional intelligence” among program participants, according to the announcement.
The coming weeks will bring workshops led by experts — including IT leaders from various city agencies — along with formal classroom lessons, group discussions, case studies and panels, according to Legendre. Ideas from CIOs across the city helped to craft the program.
OIT is covering the cost of the initial cohort, he said. That comes to about $90,000, or more than $3,300 per participant.
The program offers the latest example of tech incubation, development and education programs operated by nonprofit organizations, private companies and government agencies — with such efforts increasingly focusing on AI and cybersecurity.
Even Amazon and Google are getting involved as governments continue to update their systems and work to engage with more constituents via digital and mobile channels — opportunities, of course, for those two giants of tech to increase their public-sector cloud businesses.
The new NYC academy comes a few months after the city announced that it was looking to 12 companies to help improve transit in the Big Apple via the public-private Transit Tech Lab.
But a more direct influence on the new IT academy is the city’s ongoing NYC Management Academy, Legendre said.
For two decades that program, which also runs for three months, has helped the city’s mid-level managers and potential future leaders gain educations about basic management principles and best practices.
Backers of the new IT academy are placing big hopes on the program — especially as the city tries to increase its tech power via such areas as artificial intelligence, congestion pricing and crypto and blockchain.
“Success comes from sharing proven wisdom and insights,” said New York City Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser in the statement. “When the city develops an expertise, a path and a process, the goal is to then disseminate that knowledge throughout city government. This first class will absorb new information and then return to their home agencies to continue to raise the standards and abilities across the city.”
