US Education provider Kaplan Inc has partnered with Wall Street Bound (WSB) to create a new academy to tackle the lack of diversity in finance; by recruiting, training and mentoring diverse and underrepresented youth for careers in the financial services industry.
Kaplan will collaborate with the finance education non-profit to create a co-branded Financial Services Academy; which supports WSB’s mission to recruit and train 10,000 young, diverse dreamers for careers on Wall Street by 2030. Through this collaboration, Kaplan will provide a variety of services. They include marketing, live instruction, scholarships and discounts on financial services curriculum and test prep; including for the FINRA Securities Industry Essentials (SIE), Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exams.
LACK OF DIVERSITY IN FINANCE
The partnership aims to address the well-documented lack of diversity in the financial services and wealth management industries. According to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, there were approximately 100,000 executives at financial firms in 2018; and only 2,644 were Black and 3,682 Hispanic.
“We’re excited to be working with Wall Street Bound and its passionate founder, Troy Prince,” stated Joyce Schnur, Senior Vice President of Finance Programs at Kaplan. “This organisation’s mission is perfectly aligned with Kaplan’s values; and we look forward to helping develop greater diversity, equity and inclusion in the financial industry.”
HUNGRY & AVAILABLE DIVERSE TALENT
A graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and NYU Stern School of Business, WSB Founder and CEO Troy Prince worked on Wall Street for more than 20 years; on both the buy- and sell-side as an institutional equity trader at leading US and international firms. Noting the persistent lack of diversity in the front offices of financial institutions and the abundance of hungry and available diverse talent, the Bronx native has long considered the idea and necessity of creating WSB. Now, his personal mission is to “prepare and connect typically overlooked diverse talent with careers in the capital markets and investment industry”.
“Working with Kaplan will help Wall Street Bound take a giant leap forward in achieving our goals and advancing the finance career opportunities of diverse youths,” commented Prince. “By teaching the technical ‘hard’ skills of finance and the ‘soft’ skills of corporate culture, we believe that we can empower diverse finance talent to become agents of positive change and sustainable economic development.”
CREATING A DIVERSE CANDIDATE PIPELINE
One of the primary catalysts of this partnership is Kaplan’s National Director of Academic Staff, Gigs Taylor-Stephenson; who has served as an advisor for instruction and curriculum at WSB since near its inception in 2019. At Kaplan, she manages more than 100 instructors nationwide; who facilitate classroom instruction for the insurance continuing education, insurance licensing and securities industry product lines.
“When I began my career in financial education over 20 years ago as an instructor, often I was the only Black or female in the classroom. Not much has changed,” noted Taylor-Stephenson. “I am excited that Kaplan and Wall Street Bound have decided to take this journey together; forming a programme which will create a much-needed pipeline of qualified, diverse candidates; who will receive the requisite knowledge and training to enter and thrive in the industry.”
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