Governor Bobby Jindal unveiled Tuesday that JPMorgan Chase and Company is pledging $1 million dollars to the Foundation for Louisiana’s Community and Technical Colleges to fund the statewide workforce.
Louisiana’s Community and Technical Colleges press release said once the funds are approved by the Louisiana Board of Regents they would be the first to use the $40 million Workforce and Innovation for a Stronger Economy Fund.
The JPMorgan Chase investment of $1 million dollars will be turned into a total of $5 million dollars due to the matching process.
The WISE fund seeks $40 million dollars of investments into higher education to launch Louisiana into workforce competition at the national level.
It’s predicted that Louisiana will experience a shortage of more than 80,000 skilled workers within the next five to 10 years.
Governor Jindal’s news release said “Today is a great day for our state and for higher education in Louisiana. Because of the many companies expanding in our state, tens of thousands of jobs are now in the pipeline that must be filled, and our challenge is to ensure we have the skilled workforce to fill these jobs of the future.”
Greg Hassell, with JPMorgan Chase Media Relations, said the investment is part of the banks five year, $250 million global New Skills at Work campaign. The campaign calls for money to be invested into building a demand driven system, investing in workforce training programs and sponsor data analysis of skills.
“We felt like we could make a big difference in Louisiana by making this investment,” Hassell said.
Hassell said the company’s bankers see problems with skilled positions not being filled.
The University will not receive any of JPMorgan Chase’s investment. The investment was made to the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, not the LSU system.
The Daily Reveille reported on Sept. 9 the University received $14.5 million dollars from the WISE fund.