Free CDL Study Hall in Long Island City — Queens Permit Prep

On Tuesday, April 21st, Emerge Career held a free CDL permit prep Study Hall at the Ravenswood Community Learning Center in Long Island City, hosted in partnership with Queens Public Library. The session ran from 3:30 to 5:00 PM.

This is the second week in a row we've run a Tuesday Study Hall in Queens. Queens is big, and students coming from Jamaica, Astoria, or Long Island City need an option that doesn't require crossing into Manhattan. Ravenswood works — it's close to the subway, the space is set up for focused work, and Queens Public Library has been a consistent partner for our reentry programming.

What a Queens CDL permit prep session looks like

Every Study Hall follows the same format: structured practice on the three CLP exam sections — General Knowledge, Air Brakes, and Combination Vehicles — plus one-on-one support from Emerge Career staff. Students showed up at different stages. Some were scheduled for their exam within the week. Others were just starting out. The format works for all of them.

The feedback from the room was unanimous. Every attendee rated the session 5 out of 5 and said they'd recommend an Emerge event to a friend. One attendee wrote: "Host was awesome and engaged participants." Another: "Interaction with instructor." Two students booked their permit exam before they left the room.

Free CDL training in Queens

Emerge Career's free CDL training program is open to justice-impacted New Yorkers. The program covers permit prep, CLP exam scheduling, CDL training, DOT physicals, and job placement — all at no cost. Class A CDL jobs in our network start at $80,000 a year.

Ready to get started? Apply to Emerge Career and we'll save you a seat at the next Queens Study Hall.