OneTen is a nonprofit startup coalition of more than 30 chief executive officers from companies including Merck & Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Nike Inc. who are coming together to connect employers with Black workers.

OneTen aims to create one million jobs for Black Americans over the next 10 years and has so far recruited over 35 company backers and raised more than $100 million in seed funding.

Merck CEO Ken Frazier, one of the startup’s founders, said the nonprofit organization will focus on helping Black Americans without four-year college degrees, but with high school diplomas and other certifications, find and retain “family-sustaining jobs,” or those earning $40,000 or more depending on the region.

Nonprofits, community colleges and credentialing organizations will provide training to help them be successful in business, and the CEOs who have joined the effort are committing to hiring these workers.

Black people make up 12.4% of the U.S. population, but 8% of professionals, a number that has stayed steady since 2013, according to a study by the Center for Talent Innovation, a nonprofit research group. Black people hold 3.2% of senior executive positions, the group said.

Nearly 80% of working-age Black Americans don’t have a four-year college degree, making it a structural barrier for meaningful employment at many companies. OneTen’s goal isn’t only to connect companies with those workers, but also improve how companies are hiring and developing people with four-year college degrees, so that they can address the lack of Black representation in middle and upper management.

Companies will re-examine jobs to see whether they truly require a four-year college degree, calling it a “skills-first approach.” IBM once required a college degree for all its jobs, and now 43% of jobs don’t require a four-year degree. Entry-level work in health care, business and finance operations, cloud-computing, cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing could fit the bill.