Want to Get Your College Degree? Georgia Wants to Help

The heads of the University System of Georgia and the Technical College System of Georgia joined Gov. Nathan Deal to announce a program that will provide help to young people who have college credits but did not complete their degree to go back to school and graduate.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the “Go Back, Move Ahead” program is part of the governor’s “Complete College Georgia” initiative, which began in 2011. The goal of the program is to make it easier for the estimated 1.1 million Georgians who have college credits but no college degree to return to the classroom and obtain a diploma. The state has set a target of 250,000 Georgian college graduates in the year 2050.

Complete College America, a non-profit organization, estimates that by 2020, 60 percent of all jobs in Georgia will require some form of higher education, be it a degree or certificate. Currently, only 42 percent of young Georgians have such academic credentials under their belts.

Go Back, Move Ahead will help students enroll in college, an easy way to transfer college credits to their new institutions, a call center for people interested in returning to school, and academic advisers for those that do go back.