Did you know?

More than 50% of Retail workers and more than 80% of Fast Food workers receive less than two weeks notice about schedule changes. And short notice disproportionately affects low-income New Yorkers. There is a new law, called the Fair Workweek Law, enacted in November, 2017, that aims to correct this inequity, requiring employers to provide advance notice to workers about their schedules or pay a fine. An activity using the graphs below is part of the CareerKit in Hospitality, Recreation and the Arts.

As students learn about the inequities, they also learn about the new law, which makes short notice on schedule changes illegal, requiring businesses who don’t comply to pay premiums to workers for each violation.

There’s a lot of math in there! And reading, writing and discussion. The new CareerKit in Hospitality, Recreation and the Arts uses this, and much more, to help students practice reading, writing, math and research skills, while learning about careers.

What is in the NYSED/CUNY CareerKit in Hospitality, Recreation and the Arts?

The CareerKit covers careers in Hospitality, such as those in restaurants, bars and hotels; Recreation, such as those in parks, tourist attractions and cultural institutions; and the Arts, including the performing, visual and literary arts. Tourism is on the rise in New York City and around the state, impacting many areas of this sector – what people eat and drink, where they stay overnight, and the culture they consume. Multilingualism is an asset. The CareerKit also addresses what people need to do to become entrepreneurs in this sector. Students learn about the sector through reading, writing and math relevant to the HSE exam, TABE and improving English fluency.

How to use the CareerKit in Hospitality, Recreation and the Arts
1. Use the skills chart to locate activities based on the literacy or numeracy skill you want students to practice.
2. Using the skills chart, go to the Hospitality, Recreation and the Arts unit that contains the activity you want.
3. Read the activity and consider whether you want to make any adaptations to the activity, based on your students’ skills and needs

OR

Use the CareerKits as supplemental materials if your class is reading a book or articles about athletes, entertainers, nutrition or going on a museum or cultural field trip. As they learn about these topics they can also learn about working in these sectors.

Contact Ellen.Baxt@cuny.edu for a Microsoft Word version of the student handouts if you want to make any adaptations.