“The ISA world is really the Wild West because there’s no regulation right now. I think that there’s a great opportunity in Washington to craft ISA legislation that focuses on the worker. There are lots of features in our Career Impact Bonds/Student Bill of Rights that we hope that Congress will look into, like fleshing out important learner safeguards, payment caps, repayment terms, downside protection, and the like.” —Tracy Palandjian, CEO and Co-Founder, Social Finance
As the skills gap grows, students take on debt toward traditional four-year degrees that often don’t leave them job-ready. Short-term certificate programs can deliver more relevant skills but often cost upwards of $10,000 and require months of full-time study. In this environment, impact investing provides a potential vehicle for economic opportunity—tapping private funds to address social challenges in workforce development. To what extent does social financing realign incentives and reallocate risk in the workforce development system? Who are the beneficiaries? How will Covid-19 and its aftermath affect that equation?
In this Managing the Future of Work podcast by Harvard Business School, host Joe Fuller interviews Tracy Palandjian, CEO and Co-Founder of Social Finance, on how outcomes-financing tools like the Career Impact Bond, deployed through impact investing mechanisms, can help bridge the skills gap and expand economic mobility.
Listen to the Episode
The status quo is that whether you're a college or training program, you get paid by the number of people in your seats. Whether or not the degree or the program works for the worker, they still collect their tuition. In a Career Impact Bond, the training providers would only be made whole if their learners are successful in finding and keeping good jobs after graduating.
Social Finance in The New York Times: Job Training That’s Free Until You’re Hired Is a Blueprint for Biden
This feature in the New York Times covers Social Finance’s Career Impact Bond with American Diesel Training Centers. The article highlights two program graduates, Bill and Jordan, who completed the program, found jobs, and are…
2021 ACT Workforce Summit: Cross-Sector Partners and Innovative Solutions
Workforce development, education, and government leaders gathered virtually to discuss workforce challenges and solutions at the 2021 ACT Workforce Virtual Summit.
In this podcast episode, Social Finance CEO Tracy Palandjian, General Assembly CEO Lisa Lewin, and American Diesel Training Centers CEO Tim Spurlock discuss closing the skills gap and rethinking the way we finance worker training…
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