JEDI Program From Main Line Chamber Helping Foster Future Employees

Business & Tech

JEDI Program From Main Line Chamber Helping Foster Future Employees A significant focus of JEDI in the coming year is on creating opportunities for students to explore careers in the healthcare industry.

WAYNE, PA — A group of employers working through a regional suburban-based chamber of commerce will kick off a year of programming Tuesday to help high school students connect with jobs that lead to careers.

The Main Line Chamber of Commerce is launching a new Jobs and Experiences Development Initiative with an event at Closets by Design in Malvern on Nov. 19. Students from Norristown Area High School and Upper Darby High School will visit the Closets by Design factory, meet with employers and learn about how to work toward successful careers.

Jobs and Experiences Development Initiative (JEDI) is the newest initiative of the Chamber's Talent and Education Network, a 10-year-old employer collaborative that connects college and high school students with employers.

This new initiative and the Talent and Education Network are fueled by a new $50,000 grant from Truist and a $30,000 investment from United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, along with donations from several regional employers including Closets by Design, PECO, Comcast, Cencora, CSL, Lincoln Financial, Pennsylvania American Water, Essential Utilities, Independence Blue Cross, Vanguard, Philadelphia Insurance Companies, USLI and Wells Fargo.

A significant focus of JEDI in the coming year is on creating opportunities for students to explore careers in the healthcare industry. A four-hospital collaborative, including Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Nemours Hospital, Jefferson Health and Main Line Health, will host students at their locations to inform them about entry-level jobs across different departments. By connecting students in healthcare tracks, such as medical assistant or patient care fields, with hospital systems in need of skilled entry-level employees, JEDI aims to bridge the gap between education and employment.

JEDI builds on a strong foundation of work that began in 2019 with an event where students from Norristown Area High School visited Closets by Design. Since then, the program has evolved, expanding partnerships and increasing outreach to create impactful career exploration opportunities. In the 2023-24 academic year, the chamber connected 420 students from Norristown Area High School and Delaware County Technical High Schools, with critical career resources.

The program has added new high school partners this year, including the Upper Darby High School and Montgomery County Technical High Schools. For the 2024-25 school year, the program will deliver 16 high school events, including career exploration field trips and classroom sessions on essential skills and job readiness. A focus is to ensure that students take the next steps to gain experiential learning after these events – through internships, part-time jobs or vetted programs such as the Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week that provide real-world learning about business and careers.

"The new grant from Truist allows us to expand the reach and impact of our programming for high school students, particularly in industries with high demand for entry-level positions that do not require a four-year college degree," Bernie Dagenais, President and CEO of the Main Line Chamber of Commerce, said. "We are grateful to Truist and all the employers who support JEDI and TEN for recognizing the importance of this work. Our goal with JEDI is to not only help businesses meet their workforce needs but also to empower students from under-resourced communities to access rewarding careers and contribute to the local economy."

JEDI is part of the Chamber's Talent and Education Network, which was founded in the wake of two Regional Congresses on Talent and Education hosted by the Chamber at Saint Joseph's University in 2013 and Villanova University in 2014. The two conferences brought together CEOs and top human resource professionals from companies with presidents and career office professionals from colleges and universities to discuss ways to improve interaction between employers and college students in the region.

One of the key takeaways was the importance of internships and cooperative education opportunities that provide students with real-life experience while feeding into employer efforts to build stronger entry-level hiring processes. TEN received an early boost from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation with a $75,000 grant over two years designed to help spur the expansion of employer collaboratives to help young workers launch successful careers.

With an initial focus on college students seeking internships and jobs, TEN has connected up to 700 students from 30 regional colleges and universities each year with employers in the region.

For more information about the Jobs and Experiences Development Initiative and the Talent and Education Network, contact Vibha Agrawal, Vice President, External Affairs,