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10 | I NSIGH T • J u l y 2 0 15 w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m UP FRONT R e g i o n a l R o u n d u p » 1 1 F a c e T i m e » 1 5 C o n n e c t i o n s » 1 8 "Student debt is not necessarily a bad thing if you come out the other side in a career that enables you to pay it back." – Jim Golembeski , executive director of the Green Bay Area Workforce Development Board J I M G O L E M B E S K I K N O W S all too well that student debt is a two-sided coin. On one side, it can help position a student for a long and productive career in a rewarding field. Unfortunately, if the right choices aren't made and it's not managed properly, it can act like a shackle, delaying not only their entry into a career of choice but also from purchasing items such as a home or car. It's potentially crippling to the regional economy. "Student debt is not necessarily a bad thing if you come out the other side in a career that enables you to pay it back," says Golembeski, executive director of the Green Bay Area Workforce Development Board. "It's the skills mismatch that is the problem." And it's a problem that's growing. It is also a contributing factor to the challenges employers are having finding enough skilled employees to fill the vacancies they have. By 2021, more than 11,600 jobs will go unfilled in the regional economy because of the skills gap between graduates and what employers need, Golembeski says. Not only is there a skills mismatch, but the debt load oen prevents those graduates from additional education for those unfilled jobs, hurting both the workers and businesses. "at means lost business and no economic growth," he says. B y S e a n P. J o h n s o n Student debt weighing down regional economy Workforce, business growth threatened by student loan challenges Golembeski recently took part in a presentation on the impact of student debt sponsored by We Are HOPE Inc., a nonprofit workforce organization serving workers and businesses in Northeast Wisconsin. e group surveyed recent college graduates about how much student debt they have and how it is impacting life and career choices. What they found was that nearly half — 49 percent — of the graduates they interviewed le school with more than $30,000 in debt. More than half — 55 percent — had monthly payments of more than $200 a month or more. It's not a problem unique to Northeast Wisconsin. Nationally, outstanding student loan debt now stands at more than $1 trillion, rising nearly as fast as the cost of college tuition, which increased more than 1,120 percent from 1978 to 2012. Solving the challenges posed by the growing student debt load and the skills mismatch will take a collaborative effort involving the K-12 education system, the technical schools, traditional colleges and the business community, says Sandra Duckett, executive director of We Are HOPE. "is issue is part of the sluggishness of the economic recovery," Duckett says. "If a student doesn't know what they want, we need to help them find their career path before they go to school and borrow the money." Many of the region's colleges have stepped up their education efforts about the financial and legal impacts of borrowing money to pay for school. e University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh launched a financial literacy pilot program in the fall 2014 semester to help students better understand credit and budgeting both during school and for post-graduation. "We did it for all the incoming We Are HOPE Inc. surveyed recent college graduates about the amount of student debt accrued in earning a college degree; nearly half (49 percent) reported they had more than $30,000 in student loans. (Source: We Are HOPE Inc.) 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% AMOUNT OF STUDENT DEBT ACCRUED Percent 49% $1-$15,000 $15,001 to $30,000 $30,001 to $45,000 $45,001 to $60,000 $60,001 to $75,000 $75,001 to $90,000 $90,001 to $105,000 Over $105,000