Multiple CUNY Colleges, Including Queensborough, Kingsborough and Hunter, to Offer Courses for In-Demand Job Markets, Including Music Production, Content Creation, Graphic Design and More
Read the original announcement from the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.
The NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) and NYC Small Business Services (SBS) proudly announce the “Made in NY” Media Academy, a new workforce development initiative that aims to meet the evolving workforce needs of New York City’s media and entertainment industries, offered at no cost to New Yorkers. Through active partnerships with the continuing education divisions of several City University of New York (CUNY) colleges, including Queensborough Community College, Kingsborough Community College and Hunter College, the Academy will offer an adaptive training portfolio to prepare New Yorkers for a range of diverse areas, including audio production, graphic arts, digital content creation, emerging technologies and more. CUNY will facilitate job placements for trainees with companies in their respective fields. The announcement was made at an event held at Queensborough Community College on Tuesday, June 16, which included a tour of the music facilities and a masterclass in music production given by global hip-hop Grammy Award-winning producer Kid Capri.
“New York City’s creative economy is powered by working people — the musicians, designers, editors and producers whose talent and labor make this city the cultural capital of the world,” said Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani. “The ‘Made in NY’ Media Academy will open doors to creative careers for more New Yorkers, providing free training for jobs that are hiring right now. As we build an affordable New York City, we’re creating pathways to the good-paying jobs that will shape the future of art, media and entertainment for the world.”
“This city runs on people who make things — music, art, content, stories that the rest of the world watches and listens to. For a long time, getting into that world depended on who you knew, not what you could do,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su. “The ‘Made in NY’ Media Academy changes that. It’s free training on real industry equipment, with a credential and job placement support at the other end of it. That’s what it means to build an economy that works for the people who are already doing the work that makes this city what it is.”
The announcement was made at an event held at Queensborough Community College on Tuesday, June 16, which included a tour of the music facilities. The event also included a masterclass in music production given by global hip-hop Grammy Award-winning producer Kid Capri, who said “I enjoyed hanging out with everyone at Queensborough! Always remember to hit Control S,” to remind beat producers to always save their work.
Initial “Made in NY” Media Academy course offerings include:
- Music Production Bootcamp at Queensborough Community College – Course begins September 15. Register now.
- Content Creation Bootcamp at Kingsborough Community College – Course begins September 23. Register now.
- Graphic Design Bootcamp at Hunter College – Course begins Fall 2026. Register interest now.
For each training topic, individual CUNY schools will leverage relationships with studios and vendors, current curriculum, and instructional capacity to deliver courses and provide job placement for participants. Applicants must be New York City residents who are 18 or older, authorized to work in the United States, Selective Service compliant (if applicable) and have a high school diploma or HSE. Applicants must demonstrate interest in pursuing a career in their course topic, make under $60,000 if employed, and commit to the full training schedule and attendance requirements.
“CUNY’s mission has always been rooted in upward mobility, and the ‘Made in NY’ Media Academy — launched in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and Small Business Services — turns that promise into practice,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “By engaging CUNY colleges to meet the real-time needs of New York’s creative industries, we’re providing targeted, no-cost training for diverse local talent to launch careers in our city’s iconic creative sector.”
“Queensborough’s music program is designed with career success in mind, giving students the foundation, training, and confidence they need to thrive in today’s creative economy,” said Queensborough Community College President Christine Mangino. “We are proud to partner with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the NYC Department of Small Business Services on an initiative that connects students with industry-informed training aligned with the needs of employers in creative fields.”
“As a leader in workforce development in New York City, Kingsborough Community College is proud to partner with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the NYC Small Business Services to offer the Made in NY Media Academy Content Creator Bootcamp,” said Kingsborough Community College President Suri Duitch. “This free program, offered at Brooklyn’s community college in the borough so many New York City creatives call home, will provide the next generation of content creators with work-ready, foundational journalism skills, a professional portfolio, industry connections, and job placement assistance to help them succeed in today’s digital-first, creative economy.”
“Connecting academic study to professional practice is vitally important for turning educational access into career opportunity,” said Hunter College President Nancy Cantor. “That is precisely what the Made in New York Media Academy will do by tapping local talent while creating visible pathways to media careers. Hunter College is delighted to collaborate with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, our CUNY colleagues, and the industry partners in this initiative, pooling our expertise to cultivate the next generation of homegrown content creators in the media capital of the world.”
More on the course offerings:
- 10-week innovative training at QCC that combines music production techniques with hands-on experience in recording studio environments.
- Selected as an initial training topic based on labor market analysis using Lightcast Q2 2025 data, which identified 114 unique job postings and 177 total postings from 51 employers in the past year across roles such as music producers, sound designers and sound engineering technicians.
- Graduates will receive assistance with securing employment in commercial recording studios, live recording venues, radio and broadcast networks, and with manufacturers serving the music production field, including Dead Zone Production, J&D Warren Music, Likeable Media, Prime Content, Quirk Creative, Studio Center and Truluvent.
- Seven-week deep dive at KCC into digital storytelling and multimedia production to prepare students for core competencies in content creation, video editing and digital strategy, with dedicated career planning support in partnership with Reel Works for roles in creative agencies and marketing departments.
- Selected as an initial training topic based on labor market analysis that identified strong employer demand across related occupations, including public relations specialists (718 job postings), writers and editors (983 job postings), producers and directors (482 job postings), writers and editors (529 postings) and news analysts (206 job postings) over the past year.
- Occupations in these sectors offer median wages ranging from approximately $68,400 to $70,400 annually and support career pathways throughout the media, entertainment, publishing, advertising, broadcasting and digital communications sectors.
- 11-weeks with more than 100 hours of instruction at Hunter to prepare New Yorkers for entry-level careers as graphic artists, multimedia designers and digital content creators with job-ready skills in industry-standard tools including Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, alongside career-readiness training, a capstone portfolio project and paid micro-internships with NYC employers.
- The Bootcamp will serve two cohorts totaling 30 underrepresented New Yorkers in its first year, providing supportive services including transit assistance, a Hunter College credential upon completion and job-placement support connecting graduates directly to employment opportunities in NYC’s creative economy.
- Hunter College will incorporate a micro internship component into its program, providing participants with hands-on professional experience while building industry networks with organizations such as Bloomberg, Hearst, NBCUniversal, ABC News, Warner Bros. Discovery, WNYC/Gothamist, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, News Corp, The New York Post, BBC Studios, and U.S. News & World Report, as well as communications and branding firms including Rubenstein Communications, Edelman, BPCM, ICR, Shore Fire Media, Turner PR and Hotwire.
“The “Made in NY” Media Academy represents a new way to train New Yorkers for opportunities in our city’s world renowned creative industries,” said NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment Commissioner Rafael Espinal. “Rather than focus on a single occupation, the Academy’s offerings will evolve in response to real-time labor market shifts and emerging demands across the media sector, ensuring New Yorkers have the relevant skills to stay employed and take on new career paths.”
“New York City is a global leader in art and culture because of the world-class talent that calls our city home, and the Made in NY Media Academy will take that to the next level,” said SBS Commissioner Kenny Minaya. “By working directly with MOME, CUNY, and partners from film, television, radio, music production, graphic design, and digital content creation, Made in NY will both connect homegrown talent with jobs in the entertainment industry and equip them with the skills to thrive in an ever-changing environment.”
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