Building on Experience: Aleksei’s Career Journey

When Aleksei Ermakov came to Riverside, he brought with him more than ten years of international experience in Occupational Health and Safety and a degree in engineering. He also brought the challenge that so many immigrant professionals know well: continuing a career in a new country while simultaneously building confidence and fluency in a new language. It's a balance that requires enormous skill and even greater patience, and one that is too often invisible from the outside.

Through Riverside’s English classes and individual career coaching, Aleksei identified a path to build on his existing experience. In July, that path led him to be accepted into the Environmental Remediation Skills Training Program at our longtime partner St. Nicks Alliance, where he is now pursuing U.S.-recognized industry certifications and job placement support, positioning him to translate more than a decade of professional experience into a stable career here in New York.

Aleksei's journey reflects the kind of work Riverside has always been committed to: not simply teaching English, and not simply connecting people to jobs, but helping immigrant New Yorkers build on what they already know and extend their expertise into new contexts. His story is a reminder of the skills, knowledge, and professional experience immigrants bring to our communities and workforce, and of the importance of creating pathways that recognize rather than erase them. When we invest in bridges—language, credentialing, coaching, partnership—participants like Aleksei are ready to cross them, and our city is stronger for it.