Major Companies Commit to Hiring 100,000 Low-Income New Yorkers by 2030
August 11 2020 - 11:31AM
Dow Jones News
By Shan Li
Chief executives at 27 of the biggest companies, including
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Amazon.com Inc. and Google owner Alphabet
Inc. have committed to hiring 100,000 low-income and Black, Latino
and Asian New Yorkers by 2030 -- an effort that comes during a
monthslong wave of protests about racial inequality.
The companies are launching an initiative called the New York
Jobs CEO Council, which also will include other nonprofits and New
York schools to prep students for jobs that will lead to careers,
according to a statement. Chief executives who have signed on
include Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Jeff Bezos at Amazon and
Sundar Pichai of Google.
A quarter of the jobs -- or 25,000 -- is pledged for students
from the City University of New York's system, which is
collaborating with the council to tweak its curriculum for
well-paid careers, said Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, chancellor of
CUNY.
That may include creating new classes or updating a curriculum
in areas such as tech, which can be rolled out in all of CUNY's 25
campuses instead of just one or two, Mr. Rodríguez said. The goal
also is to integrate paid internships and apprenticeships as part
of the education on a wider scale.
"It is a game changer," said Mr. Rodríguez. Low-income students
will gain valuable job experience, he said, and also earn money for
tuition.
Rob Speyer, chief executive of New York real-estate company
Tishman Speyer, said the recent Black Lives Matter protests have
heightened urgency among companies to "do a better job of embracing
diversity at the highest levels."
"There needs to be a new social contract between business and
our communities," he said.
Julie Sweet, chief executive of consulting firm Accenture PLC,
said she has seen a disconnect between what schools teach students
and what the workplace demands. Accenture has learned first-hand
over the past few years by launching an apprenticeship program and
working with schools to prep students for jobs with a future, she
said. The hope is that the same can be replicated with New York
City students.
"Some will go into entry-level jobs, some will have
apprenticeships and some will have learning and work experiences,"
she said.
Gail Mellow, executive director of the council and formerly the
president of LaGuardia Community College, said the group has been
studying models around the world, such as Switzerland, which has a
system that firmly integrates school with hands-on job training
from an early age.
"We don't want to reinvent the wheel," she said. "We want to
learn from what's working."
Many details, including specifics about how companies will work
with schools or how much money will be devoted to the project, are
unclear. Ms. Meadow said that any new curriculum or apprenticeships
would likely launch next year.
Write to Shan Li at shan.li@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 11, 2020 11:16 ET (15:16 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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