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San Diego workers boost salary through income share program

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Posted at 5:03 PM, Mar 26, 2021
and last updated 2021-03-26 20:25:46-04

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- Mahboobeh Khalil quit her job as a retail manager to pursue her passion - I.T. Engineering. Then the pandemic hit and unemployment skyrocketed.

“I was so hopeless, I was blaming myself every single day,” she said. “Why did I make that decision?”

Kahlili had a degree in I.T. from University of Tehran, but felt she a credential from an American school.

She figured out a way to do it without the risk of overwhelming student debt. Khalili signed up for the San Diego Workforce Partnership's Income Share Agreement.

The program fronts the money for a certificate program at UC San Diego Extension, which costs around $6,500.

Graduates pay back up to 1.8 times that price, or $11,700. The payments total 6 to 8 percent of gross monthly income.

Graduates, however, only make monthly payments if they are earning more than $3,333 per month, equivalent to a $40,000 yearly salary. If salary drops below that, the payments stop. And, payments end after three to five years, no matter the amount still owed.

“You don't need that four-year degree,” said Peter Callstrom, the Workforce Partnership’s CEO. “If you can get that extension certificate and you have a very specific, critical skill set that you've acquired, that’s what employers are looking for.”

The average graduate is making $53,000 year, with six of them above six figures. The Workforce Partnership is opening applications for the summer.

Khalili got her certificate in business intelligence, and landed a job at ServiceNow, earning 30 percent more than she did as a retail manager.

“I'm more than happy that I made that decision and I stayed on it for a whole year,” she said.

She's now making the monthly payments to help the next group follow in her footsteps.