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NJ bets on zero-interest, no-fee workforce training loans

A conversation with David Socolow, HESAA NJ Executive Director, and Tracy Palandjian, Social Finance CEO & co-founder
By Ramona Schindelheim
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In this episode of Work in Progress, David Socolow, executive director of the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority and Tracy Palandjian, CEO and co-founder of Social Finance join me to discuss a new, first-of-its-kind state workforce development project which is financing training for family-sustaining careers.

The New Jersey Pay It Forward Program is a partnership between the state and the nonprofit to fund education for well-paying jobs in in-demand industries such as health care, cybersecurity, IT, skilled trades, and clean energy.

The unique financing structure offers zero-interest, no-fee loans to students who might not otherwise have the income, savings, or credit history to take out a loan to pay for the training.

The Pay It Forward fund that the state has established through Social Finance will be paying all the tuition and other fees for individuals who go through select credential, certificate, and degree programs..

The inaugural training programs and providers are registered nursing at Hudson County Community College, cybersecurity at New Jersey Institute of Technology, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and welding at Camden County College. 

“This program is very much thinking about how we align the workforce development agenda with the (state’s) economic development agenda. Students enroll at no upfront cost. I love the phrase that (Governor Murphy) uses – ‘The living stipend and the wraparound support services are all on the house,’ meaning that it’s grant funded, it’s not going to be repaid,” explains Palandjian.

Socolow calls it a “terrific opportunity for us to get additional workforce training financed in a unique way. We are filling in funding gaps with this unique public-private partnership.” Socolow points out the program has co-investment from the eight companies in the New Jersey CEO Council.

“Those are some of the largest companies in New Jersey that have bought into this program and want to fund this opportunity for workers to get training for in-demand skills. And we have some state funding from the state budget,” he adds.

There are some other student-friendly economic terms. Borrowers don’t have to start paying back the loan until they get a job with a specific income level. After five years, the loan balance will be forgiven for borrowers in good standing. Additionally, all loan payments will be recycled back into the fund to ‘pay it forward’ for future students tapping into the training program.

“We are confident that the outcomes are going to be good and that this will in fact recycle. The money will come back to the fund, because the worker is going to get a great job and they’re going to repay an affordable percentage of their income back into the fund to train future workers, to ‘pay it forward,'” says Socolow.

Palandjian says, “We are able to design these generous terms because of the generosity of the state, frankly. But if you compare it to the status quo, I think David would be first to agree, that from the state’s financial perspective, any recyclability, even if it’s 50 cents on the dollar, 30 cents on the dollar, it’s still financially better than a straight out grant.”

You can listen to the full podcast here, or download and listen to it wherever you get your podcasts.

Read more about the New Jersey Pay It Forward Program here.

Episode 246: Tracy Palandjian, Social Finance CEO & co-founder and David Socolow, HESAA NJ Executive Director
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Executive Producers: Joan Lynch and Melissa Panzer
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4.0
Download the transcript for this podcast here.
You can check out all the other podcasts at this link: Work in Progress podcasts

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.

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