Over the next five years, banking giant JPMorgan Chase will spend $75 million to fight youth unemployment.
JPMorgan Chase plans to spend $75 million over the next five years to combat youth unemployment by training young people for well-paying, in-demand jobs in fields requiring technical education and training.
The global New Skills for Youth Initiative will provide states with grants for career education programs to reduce high unemployment rates among 16- to 24-year-olds, particularly minorities. The program is designed to ensure young people are better prepared for the high-skill jobs so important in today’s global economy.
“It is a crisis that only 60% of students in high-poverty urban school districts graduate from high school and that more than five million young people are out of work and school,’’ said JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon in a news release. “Without the right skills or education, they find themselves stuck in low-skill, low-wage jobs or unemployed.’’
The New Skills for Youth Initiative will help train young people for jobs requiring technical training and education that employers struggle to fill. Currently, not enough young people are earning the necessary postsecondary credentials, which diminishes their job prospects and reduces their earning potential.
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Starting in the spring, 20 to 25 states will receive $100,000 grants to develop long-term career readiness programs that meet the needs of area employers. Then in the fall, about a dozen states will each receive $1.5 million to $2 million over three years to implement the programs and evaluate their success.
A multinational banking and financial services company, JPMorgan Chase has teamed up with the Council of Chief State School Officers to award the grants. It also is working with the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium, which represents leaders in secondary, postsecondary and adult Career Technical Education (CTE).
JPMorgan Chase also announced it will invest in programs around the world that create career-focused education programs aligned with emerging industries. The idea is to develop successful programs that can be replicated elsewhere.
In helping to announce the initiative, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said New Skills for Youth will better prepare young people for 21st Century jobs through hands-on learning experiences, ultimately helping them move up the economic ladder.
