The Cooper Union's Retraining Program for Immigrant Engineers provides admitted participants the opportunity to update their skills and work in their chosen fields by offering them professional courses and job placement assistance free of charge.  The program includes courses in information technology as well as chemical, mechanical, electrical and civil engineering.  All courses are scheduled  around the needs of working professionals during weekday evenings and weekends during the day.

Courses

The program offers more than 20 introductory and high-technology courses designed to bring engineering, computer programming, and business skills of participants up to date.  Over the years, the course offerings have been flexible in reponse to the demands of the job marketplace and the needs of the students.

Courses are held at The Cooper Union's Albert Nerken School of Engineering  at 41 Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003, and are taught by Cooper Union alumni, graduate students and experts.  Courses are offered in fall and spring, and occasionally during winter inter-session or the summer, depending on the funding.  Participants receive 24-30 hours of course time per session.  Classes are varying between two and three hours and the sessions between eight and twelve weeks.

Since its inception the Retraining Program for Immigrant Engineers has taught over 4,300 students and placed more than 2,500 of them in jobs.

Professor Fred L. Fontaine, chairman of the electrical engineering department of Cooper Union Albert Nerken School of Engineering, is the educational director of the program.  Larisa Akerman is the program co-director, and helps students enter the program, get connected to other services they may require, and oversees job placement efforts.

Eligibility

The program welcomes all legal immigrants, seeking re-training in the fields of engineering.  All participants must be permanent residents, and have work authorization.  The program is accepting applications for fall 2015.

Job Placement

Job openings are obtained via the program instructors, professional network, previous program students and referrals from other community organizations, newspaper advertisements, and the internet.

If you would like to advertise a job opening, please contact The Cooper Union at 212-353-4349.

Resources

The program has  a library of video and print resources covering science and technology, mechanical, electrical and civil engineering, chemistry and envoirnmental protection, computer science and job marketing.  Utilizing these, students can improve their English and learn professional terminology and job-hunting skills.