New York University Science Training Enhancement Program

The New York University Scientific Training Enhancement Program (NYU STEP) was designed as a three-phase effort to improve the career readiness of trainees. Our goal was to bridge the gap between perceived career opportunities and the actual careers biomedical Ph.D.s ultimately pursue. NYU STEP functioned as an open program, rather than a cohort model, and focused on career exploration, general skill building, and career-specific skill building. The core element of STEP was the IDP Course, Hope Is Not A Plan: Taking Charge of Your Scientific Career, which was the foundation of career exploration and planning for subsequent phases of the program. NYU STEP evolved from organizing 23 courses, workshops, or career panels with 525 registrants in 2013 to 45 such activities in 2018 with over 1600 registrants. Additionally, NYU STEP functioned as an organizing hub for other NYU and NYC career development programming, and helped connect trainees with resources provided by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, NYU Wasserman Career Center, New York Academy of Sciences, and numerous local employers. The five-year funding period concluded with NYU STEP organizing 186 career development activities with a total enrollment of approximately 6000 trainees. The funding provided allowed NYU STEP to develop more rigorously structured career training courses and more detailed analytical tools to study the effectiveness of these resources. Although it is too soon to definitively describe the results, we have built a program that allows for evaluation and modification for a comprehensive array of career preparation that is broad enough to be relevant to all biomedical trainees while being specific enough to provide meaningful training for the most common careers pursued by our trainees.