Refocus Education: What JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Wants To See In WISH-TV Exclusive

What JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Wants To See In WISH-TV Exclusive

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The leader of the world’s largest bank and one of the most influential financial executives in the United States believes it’s time for the country to refocus its education goals.

The comment from Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, came during an exclusive interview with WISH-TV Senior Daybreak Anchor Scott Sander.

In the interview in downtown Indianapolis, Sander asked what Dimon believes will be the future challenges faced by Indianapolis and neighboring states and cities.

“I think they’re pretty much the same,” Dimon said. “You have wonderful universities. But if you look at kids, they have to be educated to get jobs. Too much focus in education has been on graduating college, but it should be on jobs.”

Dimon added that he believed schools should be measured on whether students get a good job after graduating high school.

“So, you can be a teller and make $40,000 a year as a 17-year-old,” he started. “If you happen to have a family, at 18 or whatever, you get $20,000 of medical benefits for your family. So, you can be a welder, you could be a coder, you could be cyber, you could be automotive, all of those jobs are $40,000 to $70,000 a year. So jobs, jobs, jobs and education.”

Dimon continued to say that while many efforts are taking place in Indianapolis and around the U.S. to place more emphasis on jobs, he thinks we’ve fallen behind as a nation.

Another challenge Dimon said we face as a country is “collaboration.”

“Business is not demonic. Business creates the jobs,” he said. “One-hundred-sixty million people, maybe more now, go to work every day; 140 million work for businesses. Most of them actually like their jobs. This notion that they don’t is fundamentally not true.

“We train people and give them opportunity, and that’s true for big companies and small companies. Being conducive to business and collaborating with business is how it works.”