Meaghan Dennison is the CEO and founder of the Forward Fund, which is one of the state’s first models for financing short-term education. The non-profit raised $7 million in contributions from The Endowment ($3 million), Live Oak Bank, and MegaCorp Logistics, alongside major gifts from individual donors.
So far the organization has provided loans for 21 students across the two programs, worth $191,000. The average loan size is $9,000. The first cohort of students getting these loans are set to graduate at the end of March.
The idea for the program grew from the 2021 Inclusive Economy report from Cape Fear Collective, a data science nonprofit organization. The report's authors studied affordable housing, and one of their solutions was to find ways to provide people with higher wages. Those employed in truck driving and as electrical line-workers will eventually have access to those — but paying for the education is a hurdle, along with other life expenses such as child care, transportation, and housing.
“The starting salaries for most of these jobs average anywhere from $50,000 to 55,000, so if you go through the program, you graduate, you land in the career, you're going to pay back this loan. For reference, if you take a $10,000 loan, your monthly payment is less than $170. That's never going to go up, and it can pause altogether if you're below that minimum salary threshold and your repayment helps the next student,” Dennison said.
The Forward Fund uses a third party, Ascent Funding, to handle the loan. These bank-backed loans have favorable terms like no minimum credit score required or a student doesn’t have a co-signer (there are some exceptions for some immigration statuses). Dennison reports that about 94% will be approved. Major disqualifying factors would be if a student has collection accounts greater than $15,000 (excluding medical debt or student loans) or is a debtor in an open bankruptcy proceeding.
After they graduate, Dennison said she’s excited to track the success of these students' pre- and post-program income, credit scores, and other economic mobility factors.
Those students taking advantage of the electrical line worker program are typically White males in their mid-20s. For truck driving, those students skew older and tend to be more diverse regarding race and ethnicity.
Dennison said they hope to expand the program into construction, welding, HVAC, plumbing, technology, and healthcare. They’ve already signed a memorandum of understanding with Durham Tech for their electrical line worker program and are in the process of signing one with Fayetteville Tech Community College for both electrical line worker and CDL programs.
Those considering a career in CDL truck driving or as an electrical line worker should first apply for the ten-week program through CFCC and then apply for the loan through the Forward Fund.
Resources
*Loan application link only available to CFCC enrolled students
