Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Alumni
  • Login
  • Volunteer
  • Clubs
  • Reunions
  • Magazine
  • Class Notes
  • Help
  • Give Now
  • Stories
  • Alumni Directory
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Careers
  • Programs & Events
  • Giving
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Alumni→
  • Stories→

Stories

Stories

17 Feb 2022

A Big Bet

Upskilling project aims to fuel $1 billion in wage gains
Re: Tracy Palandjian (MBA 1997); Gerald Chertavian (MBA 1992)
Topics: Labor-EmploymentSocial Enterprise-Nonprofit OrganizationsEducation-TrainingEducation-Financial Aid
ShareBar

Tracy Palandjian (MBA 1997) and Gerald Chertavian (MBA 1992)
(Photos by Susan Young)

When Google announced a $100 million fund to expand skills training and job placement programs for low-income Americans, two HBS alumni were standing by: Tracy Palandjian (MBA 1997), cofounder and CEO of Social Finance, and Gerald Chertavian (MBA 1992), founder and CEO of Year Up. The initiative tackles training for the nearly two-thirds of American workers who lack a four-year college degree.

Palandjian’s Social Finance is designing the initiative and managing the investment program, which is funded by Google philanthropy and loan repayments by students. (As an example, a student might contribute flat monthly payments of $100 so long as their annual income exceeds a threshold amount of $40,000.)

Chertavian’s Year Up, along with Merit America, will train students with content from Google career certificate courses in IT support, data analytics, project management, and user experience design. In addition to hard skills, the training partners will provide support and guidance in soft skills such as collaboration and communication. “Skills and competencies are important, but so is building up a person’s social capital,” Chertavian told the New York Times.

Palandjian’s Social Finance hopes to add more training partners this year; an independent research firm, MDRC, will evaluate the performance of the initiative. Over time, Google hopes to fuel total wage gains of $1 billion for 20,000 training program graduates. “We’ll allocate more funds to whoever is delivering better results,” noted Palandjian. “It’s all about impact.”

READ MORE

ShareBar

Featured Alumni

Gerald Chertavian
MBA 1992
Login to send a message
Tracy Palandjian
MBA 1997
Login to send a message

Post a Comment

Featured Alumni

Gerald Chertavian
MBA 1992
Login to send a message
Tracy Palandjian
MBA 1997
Login to send a message

Related Stories

    • 01 Sep 2023
    • HBS Alumni Bulletin

    Solving for Z

    Re: Matt Breitfelder (MBA 2002); Gloria Chen (MBA 1994); Josh Bronstein (MBA 2010); By: Alexander Gelfand; Illustrations by Doug Chayka
    • 25 Aug 2022
    • HBS Alumni Bulletin

    Research Brief: Paying the Price for Remote Work

    Re: Alberto F. Cavallo (Thomas S. Murphy Professor of Business Administration); By: Jill Radsken
    • 01 Sep 2020
    • HBS Alumni Bulletin

    Elevator Pitch: First Byte

    Re: Anthony Tayoun (MBA 2019)
    • 02 Mar 2020
    • Wisconsin State Journal

    Cheese Whiz

    Re: Paul Scharfman (MBA 1979)

More Related Stories

 
 
 
ǁ
Campus Map
External Relations
Harvard Business School
Teele Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Phone: 1.617.495.6890
Email: alumni+hbs.edu
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.