JPMorgan Chase Shares New Approaches to Summer Youth Employment Programs in Response to COVID-19
JPMorgan Chase is helping more than 20 U.S. cities prepare thousands of young people for the future of work through new approaches to Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEP) in response to the COVID-19 crisis and this moment of change in the U.S. Working closely with cities and non-profit partners, this $3 million investment will help ensure the accessibility of SYEPs during the pandemic, leading to more career and learning opportunities for young people. The investment builds on the firm’s response to COVID-19 and is part of the firm’s five-year commitment to helping U.S. cities increase the number of young people with access to quality summer work experiences that guide them on a path to greater economic mobility.
- SYEPs help equip young people with the skills and experiences they need to succeed and bridge the gap between the demand for summer jobs and the number of available positions.
- The COVID-19 crisis and associated economic impact, including a 14.7 percent U.S. unemployment rate, are leading to less access to summer jobs, part-time work and internships that teens rely on to support themselves and their families.
- Historically, economic downturns disproportionately impact young people, especially young people of color. In a time where injustice and inequality is at the forefront for many young people, JPMorgan Chase is working with cities across the nation to provide young people with virtual learning experiences, career mentoring and other opportunities to learn about postsecondary options for promising career pathways.
- While young people need access to consistent income to support themselves and their families, they also need meaningful learning experiences that provide skill-based opportunities.
- By 2020, 65 percent of jobs in the U.S. will require some postsecondary education, training or credential. These heightened expectations will require young people to gain work experience and develop skills today to enable them to compete in the global workforce in the future.
- To help ensure young people have access to opportunity during this time, the firm is supporting innovative approaches to regular summer youth employment programming such as:
- Shifting career readiness and work-based learning programs to virtual settings (e.g., new web-based curricula, online mentoring)
- Partnering with high schools and colleges to support learning and class credit recovery for students; and
- Focusing on hard-hit career areas that need rebuilding after the COVID-19 crisis.
- Through collaboration across both private and public sectors to provide more young people with summer jobs and career readiness opportunities, this commitment will impact programs in over 20 U.S. cities including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Louisville, Milwaukee, Newark, New York City, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Portland, Sacramento, the Seattle Region and St. Louis. Some cities of note include:
- Los Angeles:
- UNITE-LA's STEAM Career Readiness initiative will help young adults develop pathways into high-growth, living wage STEAM careers focused on: engaging engineering and biotech industries and providing virtual career awareness, exploration and preparation programming.
- Louisville:
- SummerWorks will also provide wages for low-income high school students for virtual, summer internships with a nonprofit or public agency aligned to their career pathway in JCPS Academies of Louisville (AoL) high schools.
- Los Angeles:
JPMorgan Chase has invested $125,000 to ExpandED Options, as part of our summer youth employment commitment.
ExpandEd Options has built out an innovative approach to virtual, credit-bearing programming in response to the COVID-19 crisis, by partnering with 10 apprenticeship providers to create and support high school credit-worthy programming. Participating students are recruited into the program through a process designed to simulate a professional hiring process, including an online application and formal interview.
JPMorgan Chase's commitment will help ExpandED Options work with its program sites to create virtual career readiness webinars and curricula. ExpandED Options is also creating plans for a more intensive apprenticeship programming to provide additional resources for students should schools continue to operate virtually in the fall.
History of Supporting Workers
This investment is a part of JPMorgan Chase’s $350M New Skills at Work program, including the firm’s $17 million, five-year commitment to U.S. cities working to increase the number of teens with access to quality summer work experiences that put them on a path to greater economic mobility. This nationwide effort continues to equip young people with the skills and experiences they need to succeed and bridge the gap between the demand for summer jobs and the number of available positions. Since 2017, the firm’s commitment to SYEP has helped more than 61,000 young people across 24 cities gain work experience. Similarly, JPMorgan Chase recently celebrated the 10 year anniversary of The Fellowship Initiative and announced its expansion to help more than 1,000 young Black and Latinx men in the U.S. access economic opportunity.
JPMorgan Chase’s investment in SYEP is part of the firm’s broader commitment to removing barriers to economic opportunity. In 2019, the firm announced its renewed support for New Skills at Work, a $350 million, five-year global initiative to prepare people for the future of work with a focus on creating economic mobility and building career pathways for underserved communities. Over the past six years, the firm has helped more than 150,000 people across 37 countries develop in-demand skills for jobs in growing industries.
About JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $3.1 trillion and operations worldwide. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing, and asset management. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, JPMorgan Chase & Co. serves millions of customers in the United States and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients under its J.P. Morgan and Chase brands. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.