Key Highlights
Challenges
Even when tuition costs are fully or partially paid through financial aid grants, working adults still face financial barriers to enrollment in education and training programs that can prepare them to fill in-demand jobs. When prospective students cannot afford to cover living costs while also paying education-related costs beyond tuition, they must often choose between forgoing a lucrative career path or taking on significant high-interest personal debt.
Opportunities
New Jersey’s Pay It Forward program is an outcomes-based financing model that is designed to remove financial barriers to enrollment in and completion of high-quality training by providing zero-interest loans as a “last dollar” solution to financial gaps, after first applying all other available grants and scholarship funding to cover their education costs. The program also offers wraparound services and living stipends free of charge.
NJ PIF stretches funding – which comes from a mix of public and private dollars – by reinvesting loan repayments to train more students than would be possible through grants alone, creating a “pay-it-forward” effect that scales impact.
The program supports students enrolled in certain high-demand, occupation-specific courses of study in public colleges — with an initial focus on the health care sector. The outcomes-based loan model ties repayments to graduates’ earnings gains.
Takeaways and Next Steps
- In its first two years, NJ PIF funded 400+ students, one-third of whom are already repaying their loans.
- 95% of students use the program’s living stipends and emergency grants, showing the critical value of this support for low- and moderate-income individuals.
- The program shows that evidence-based program design and cross-agency collaboration increase impact and accountability.
- The NJ PIF is an innovative financing mechanism for increasing the pipeline of trained workers, helping employers gain access to skilled talent in critical fields and enabling workers to benefit from affordable financing and supportive services that remove debt anxiety, improve outcomes, and open a path to the middle class.
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About the Author
Tara Colton
Tara Colton is Chief Economic Security Officer at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA). In this role, she leads initiatives to create a stronger, fairer New Jersey, where all residents can build economic security and well-being. Since joining the NJEDA in 2020, Colton has spearheaded the design and expansion of the New Jersey Pay it Forward Program, which blends over $24 million in public and private funds in an outcomes-based financing model designed to address critical workforce shortages by removing financial barriers to high-quality training programs. Colton also oversees over $300 million in EDA’s growing portfolio of programs to alleviate food insecurity and eliminate food deserts and more than $140 million in grants to strengthen New Jersey’s vital child care sector. Colton has more than 20 years of leadership experience in the public and nonprofit sectors, focused on developing and implementing innovative programs and services for workers, families, students, and businesses. Prior to joining the NJEDA, Colton was Executive Director of Seedco, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing economic opportunity for people, businesses and communities in need. She has held leadership positions in the New York City Mayor’s Office and NYC Department of Education, and at the nonprofits FEGS Health & Human Services and the Center for an Urban Future. Colton received a BA in Government from Wesleyan University and a MPA from Baruch College’s School of Public and International Affairs.
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