New York State’s Labor Commissioner met with Albany High Students this week to discuss measures in Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget that she says will help their career journey.
Roberta Reardon discussed her career path from professional acting to becoming co-president of The Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, a 165,000-member union, to leading the New York State Department of Labor. And she told students about her role in protecting workers and connecting job seekers with opportunities.
"Basically what I do is I guide the direction of the of the agency," said Reardon. "We have conversations about, you know, the policies that we're enforcing, and we do a lot of training internally. I have a staff of 3,500 workers across the state. Majority of them actually are in Albany in New York City, but they're all over the state, and we enforce the all the labor laws, the regulations."
Reardon encouraged students to utilize available resources as they seek career guidance, noting that her department's offerings include registered apprenticeship programs, a new digital working papers system that makes the documents available on smartphones and 96 career centers that make use of virtual reality headsets.
"And you'll actually experience what it's like to do a lot of different jobs, so things like building cell towers," Reardon said "We actually did this at, I think it was at the State Fair, and one of our workers was doing it. Your cell towers are really tall. He had to take the headset off because he was getting dizzy, because you actually see what it's like to be up there doing the work. Clean energy, you know, deep water wind installation, solar installation, geothermal plumbing. Working in a hospital, we have a VR headset about what it's like to be in a surgical suite."
Reardon says the governor's budget proposal includes $10 million for expanding apprenticeships and an eight-week work experience program for high school students in high-demand sectors.
Reardon also addressed the impact of AI on the workforce, stressing its role as a tool rather than a threat. She fielded questions from students, including one from senior Xavier Soto.
"My question about AI was whether there was certain protections for students and workers who might have difficulty getting a job or might have, like risk of being replaced because of the technology that's being implemented in the business sector and in the workforce. Commissioner Reardon's response to that was pretty explanational for me. I got a lot out of it. That AI is not really, it's nothing to worry about. And there's tools that are put in place with AI, and it's not a direct replacement for workers. And there's, you know, they're making sure that, like, people have jobs with, you know, with the workforce and not being replaced by any AI robot, or even having like, they'll be having the training to use AI to better implement their work and not be fully replaced by it," said Soto.
Senior Jonathan Booth hosted Reardon's appearance onstage at the high school.
"I definitely would say that the students have learned the fact that we have multiple systems in place for you to be responsible of yourself, so you can also become a successful citizen. Such as, manual labor, working as construction, nursing, all the systems that the students can use, we've taken away from her conversation with us," booth said.
The state budget is due April 1st.
