NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blackstone (NYSE: BX) today announced that the Blackstone Charitable Foundation will provide a $3 million grant over three years to Year Up, one of the nation’s most impactful workforce development nonprofits. Year Up is one of the main partners of Blackstone Career Pathways, the firm’s signature career and economic mobility program. The grant will significantly accelerate the growth of Year Up’s Career Accelerator, which collaborates with nonprofits and community colleges to provide targeted, rapid skills training and talent pipelines to employers.
Blackstone Career Pathways was launched to foster economic mobility and support ongoing diversity efforts with potential to add value to our 250+ portfolio companies and more than 12,000 real estate assets, generating a competitive advantage for companies to become employers of choice for diverse talent. With the support of partner organizations, Blackstone aims to increase access to entry- and mid-level jobs and enable advancement within those jobs for diverse and historically underrepresented talent. Blackstone expects to expand the Career Pathways program to 20 of its portfolio companies by year end.
“Implementing company programs to enable the recruitment and development of diverse talent builds not only thriving careers, but also creates broader talent pools and more resilient companies,” said Joe Baratta, Global Head of Private Equity at Blackstone. “Blackstone Career Pathways importantly builds on the success of our Veterans Hiring Initiative, through which more than 100,000 veterans, veteran spouses and caregivers have been hired across Blackstone portfolio companies since 2013.”
“This isn’t just about getting somebody a job; it’s about supporting their development and providing opportunities for coaching and training so they can have thriving careers,” said Marcus Felder, Head of Blackstone Career Pathways. “I’m thrilled to be expanding this program and, in doing so, expanding the number of individuals whose careers we can positively impact.”
The Year Up Career Accelerator program sources talent in partnership with community colleges and other training organizations, provides upskilling and wraparound supports, matches young adults with employers looking to hire, and supports employment placement. The Career Accelerator connects more young adults to current in demand jobs more quickly, and its expansion will be one of the driving factors behind Year Up’s strategic plan to serve ten times as many young people per year by 2030.
“At Blackstone, we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to reach their full potential,” said Maura Pally, Executive Director of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation. “The Blackstone Charitable Foundation’s new partnership with Year Up complements the important progress of Blackstone Career Pathways to work from the ground up to increase employment opportunities and career mobility for individuals from diverse and historically under-represented communities.”
“Year Up is excited to partner with Blackstone to significantly expand the Career Accelerator and continue to provide shorter, more flexible training options to better meet employers and young adults where they are,” said Gerald Chertavian, Year Up Founder and CEO. “By leveraging some of Year Up’s greatest strengths — our professional skills training, our wraparound support services, and our relationships with employers — the Career Accelerator enables us to connect many more young people in need of an opportunity with companies in need of their talent.”
These announcements were made at Blackstone’s Inaugural Career Pathways Summit, which brought together more than 80 portfolio company teams, non-profit representatives, industry leaders, Career Pathways hires and Blackstone leaders to generate new perspectives on providing the tools, training and resources within companies that support diverse hiring, retention and advancement.
Blackstone Career Pathways builds on the firm’s efforts to prioritize diversity within Blackstone and across our portfolio through a range of initiatives, including our target that one third of board seats at newly acquired U.S. and European companies be filled by diverse candidates after Blackstone's acquisition of a controlling interest.
We also run our Blackstone LaunchPad program on more than 50 campuses nationally, which equips students with skills to better prepare them on their professional journeys. Last year, the Blackstone Charitable Foundation announced a $40 million commitment to further expand Blackstone LaunchPad to Minority Serving Institutions and community colleges and reach more students, particularly those who may otherwise not have access to these opportunities.
About Blackstone
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our $941 billion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow @blackstone on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
