CLEVELAND - KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) officials today presented a $250,000 Key Foundation check to Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), fulfilling a four-year, $1 million grant supporting development and operation of comprehensive career information and job search resource, Key Career Place.

Located at four Tri-C campuses across Cuyahoga County, Key Career Place boasts more than 14,300 service contacts annually for 6,272 greater Cleveland residents, with staff providing professional development, job search training and upscaling, and career transition assistance.

The newest center, housed within Tri-C's Corporate College at 25425 Center Ridge Rd. in Westlake, reflects the Corporate College's concentration on life-long learning and is an ideal resource for professionals constantly thinking about how to stay marketable, regardless of where they are in their careers. Other Key Career Place centers are located at Tri-C's Unified Technologies Center (Downtown Cleveland), East (Highland Hills) and West (Parma) campuses. These centers are geared more toward assisting students and job seekers in transition.

"Ensuring job security is incredibly important in today's fast-changing global marketplace," says Jean Appleby, executive director of Key Career Place. "So much so that people must think beyond their need to be a good employee to, more critically, their need to be employable. Our Corporate College Key Career Place center is a vital link for area residents who are improving their employability and are intent on reaching their earnings potential and achieving their lifestyle goals."

Appleby notes that individuals with associate's degrees qualify for the largest number of available jobs and, on average, earn $500,000 more over a lifetime than non-degreed employees. However, she says, employed professionals who enhance skills and credentials by completing training annually are best positioned to respond to current employment opportunities.

In addition to offering more than 1,000 career enhancement resources including licensed software, books, magazines, newspapers and videos, the Corporate College Key Career Place center provides four main seminars including Career Advancement 101: Create Your Next Job Now; Hot Jobs and Hiring Trends; Networking; and Network Interviewing.

Results of Key Career Place efforts over the last year:

• 816 businesses posted 3,306 full-time/part-time, seasonal & co-op jobs on the college's online job board;
  
• 157 businesses/organizations networked with 2,529 students, alumni and community job seekers at six job fairs;
  
• 137 employers interviewed more than 2,000 students, alumni and community job seekers in various recruiting events;
  
• 79 businesses/organizations employed 136 students in co-op jobs.
  
• Approximately 60 businesses will receive up to $495,000 in matching funds for hiring 165 interns enrolled in nine area colleges.

"Investment in a well-educated, highly skilled and inclusive workforce is essential for continued business growth and economic development in Cleveland," says Copeland, who also serves as director of corporate diversity at KeyCorp. "Our collaboration with Tri-C in establishing Key Career Place typifies the kinds of Key-supported academic programs and initiatives that are driving upward mobility by retaining and attracting employee bases in communities from Maine to Alaska."

Some of Key's other notable philanthropic investments in higher education:

• $500,000 grant supporting the Kent State University master's program in Financial Engineering (http://www.kent.edu/Magazine/Spring2003/Financial.cfm);
  
• $250,000 grant to help fund the University of Washington - Tacoma's Center for Professional Development (http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/pdc/);
  
• $100,000 grant to Ohio State's Fisher College of Business for development and support of academic programs including the first-ever minority student case competition and business builders workshop. series (http://www.snl.com/Interactive/IR/file.asp?IID=100334&FID=1483073&OSID=9).
  
• In 2003, the Key Foundation through 24 KeyBank districts nationwide awarded 149 academic scholarships totaling $235,131.

KeyCorp
Cleveland-based KeyCorp is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $84 billion. Key companies provide investment management, retail and commercial banking, consumer finance, and investment banking products and services to individuals and companies throughout the United States and, for certain businesses, internationally. The company's businesses deliver their products and services through KeyCenters and offices; a network of nearly 2,200 ATMs; telephone banking centers (1.800.KEY2YOU); and a Web site, Key.com,® that provides account access and financial products 24 hours a day. Contact Key Foundation Senior Program Officer Quentin McCorvey at 216.689.5505, or quentin_mccorvey@keybank.com, for more information about corporate grants. Read Key's 2002/2003 Report on Philanthropic Investment through the link "Philanthropic Investment Report" on the KeyCorp Civic Affairs page at http://www.key.com/templates/t-ak2.jhtml?nodeID=A-12, or download the report directly at http://www.key.com/mediaf/01philanthropicinvestmentreport.pdf.

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Note to Editors: For up-to-date company information, media contacts and facts and figures about Key lines of business, visit our Media Newsroom at Key.com/newsroom.

KeyBank

KeyBank

KeyCorp's roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $187 billion at June 30, 2024.

Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,200 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank Member FDIC.

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