School might be out for summer, but Jamie Dimon thinks there’s work to be done on America’s education system.
When asked how companies can address the labor shortage at the Business Roundtable’s CEO Workforce Forum on Tuesday, the JPMorgan Chase CEO identified a different problem that can be at least partially solved in the classroom.
“What you’re really short is the skills you need,” Dimon said.
He said the business community needs cyber, coding, programming, financial management, and project management skills, among other things, and that investing in schools can help close the gap.
“It’s getting out and going directly into the schools,” Dimon said to the room of business leaders. “I would guess most of us go to a lot more schools now.” There are some “wonderful examples” of in-school programs that help kids get jobs after graduation, he added.
Dimon, who is on the board of the New York Jobs CEO Council, which aims to shrink income and opportunity gaps, said curricula should change. High schools and colleges should continue teaching the typical topics — and, he said, “be proud of” American history courses — as well as more specialized, workplace-focused skills.
Dimon’s vision, as he laid it out on Tuesday, is that schools should offer classes that award credentials as part of a typical curriculum, not extra credit. He said that some schools are more open to working with the private sector than others.
JPMorgan has various school and apprenticeship programs for skills like business management and technology, according to its website. Representatives for JPMorgan did not respond to BI’s request for comment.
Dimon has talked about education in the past, saying that there should be more workplace training and classes on financial education.
“They all want jobs,” the billionaire said on Tuesday. “Graduating, a lot of these kids end up doing — and it’s not bad — but they end up doing retail or inventory or something like that, but there are jobs in coding, cyber, financial management.”
Dimon said businesses have a key role to play in solving these longstanding problems and can’t rely on the government alone. The country’s education system and universities are undergoing potentially seismic change under President Donald Trump’s second administration.
On the labor front, young people across the educational spectrum are struggling to find jobs, as AI gobbles up some entry level positions.
Correction: June 17 — An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the conference. It is the Business Roundtable’s CEO Workforce Forum.
