Small-business owners, trained in a Columbia mentoring program, will now have the chance to play in the big league.
Through a new city program, small-business owners who participate in Columbia’s Construction Trades Certificate Mentorship Program will now receive additional job training from four large corporations—BNY Mellon, Con Edison, Goldman Sachs, and National Grid.
CTCMP started four years ago as a partnership between Columbia and the city to run a certificate program for minority, women, and locally-owned construction businesses that are looking to get large corporate contracts. Through the program, selected businesses complete one year of academic coursework through the School of Continuing Education and a second year of specialized training. Upon graduation, they receive Columbia certification as well as the ability to bid on projects at the University.
According to La-Verna Fountain, associate vice president for construction business services and communications, Columbia agreed to modify its mentoring program to join the city’s new Corporate Alliance Program, or CAP.
Fountain said that the program’s new corporate partners will provide additional technical assistance to the businesses through seminars on unionization, project labor agreements, and sustainability efforts, as well as one-on-one sessions with participants.
“We give them the academic training, but they need additional training on how to do a bid, how do I set up my financial record, what are my legal obligations,” Fountain said.
Joy Crichlow, director of Con Edison’s Supplier Diversity Program, said that the Columbia mentorship program will create a “win-win situation” for the small businesses and Con Edison, which provides electricity to most of New York City.
“It is also going to give them insight on how big corporations operate, not only technically and educationally, but a practical way of how business really runs,” Crichlow said.
no longer mom-and-pop
Fountain said that Columbia’s Construction Trades Certificate Mentorship Program attempts to bridge a gap between minority, women, and locally-owned subcontracting businesses, which normally do work for other small firms, and large institutions like Columbia.
“How do you go from the mom-and-pop shop or how do you go from residential-only to really dealing with what any institution might need, and what does it take to move you there?” Fountain said.
Over the last three years, 53 out of 60 participating businesses have graduated, and Columbia has awarded $15 million in contracts, including some in its Manhattanville campus, to those graduates. Including contracts with the city, graduates have earned a total of $32 million.
As Columbia continues construction on its campus in Manhattanville, the University has awarded about a third of its construction contracts to minority, women, and locally-owned businesses.
The University has committed to keep hiring these smaller businesses, creating a need for the development of this mentoring program.
After the program’s first year, the School of Continuing Education developed an academic certificate program modeled after the master’s program in construction administration that took over the academic portion of the mentorship from the city. Many of the faculty that teach the classes in the master’s program also teach classes in the mentorship program.
The academic program was developed “specifically for people who may not have been to college in 20 years, people who may not have ever gone to college, people who know their trade but really don’t know any of the foundational things about running a business in the construction industry,” according to Fountain.
Through the mentorship program, “they [businesses] learn to make critical decisions about where they should be focusing their energy,” Fountain said. “These are people who know what they’re doing. ... What they needed to strengthen was their business model.”
Big Partners, Big Opportunities
After participating firms in the Columbia program complete the second year of the program, they will receive additional benefits from the corporate partners.
“We saw there was a need for our city-certified MWLB [minority, women, locally-owned business] firms,” Tanya Pope, executive director of education and corporate programs at the Department of Small Business Services, said. “We wanted to provide them access to suppliers ... that would be more in line with their goods and services.”
Fountain said that participants in the mentoring program will be invited to meet with managers from Columbia and the four corporate partners.
“By introducing the vendors in the program to the corporate culture, we expand their knowledge and vision of what it means to work in that environment,” Fountain said. “We create the networking opportunities to reach the people who make the decisions at each of those corporations.”
In addition to interacting with accomplished corporations, participants will learn construction management and attend 36 academic workshops focused on fostering relationships with corporate partners to expand small businesses.
With the addition of four corporate partners, the costs of the program will also be split among Columbia, BNY Mellon, Con Edison, Goldman Sachs, and National Grid. For the past three years, Columbia has been funding the program, which is free for participants.
Fountain said that the work will become more intensive for the individuals participating with the new expansion of the program.
“They’re [The corporate partners are] looking for people who they can work with to bring to the next level, not people who need them to help them complete their paperwork, to tell them what they should already know how to do,” Fountain said.
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