The South Dakota Board of Regents wants to look at a state wide goal of sixty five percent of all residents, ages twenty five to thirty four, holding some type of post-secondary credits by the year 2025.
That would range from technical certificates to graduate degrees.
University of South Dakota President Jim Abbott says growing enough jobs for those people will be critical………

While much of the focus of workforce development recently has been in technical education and two year degrees, Abbott says teaching a student how to think is the most important skill…………

There has been some discussion of the Universities developing some two year associate programs. Abbott says there are opportunities there too…………

In 2013, only thirty eight percent of working age South Dakotans held an associate degree or higher. The sixty five percent goal is from projections developed by the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute on what level of education will be needed by 2020.