Helping workers find the education and training they need to compete for good jobs when Idaho’s economic recovery begins is a major priority for the Idaho Department of Labor’s 25 local offices.
“The value of education and training cannot be overstated,” explains Labor Director Roger B. Madsen. “The consultants in every one of our offices are always looking for workers whose futures will be better if they can just tap the right education and training resources.”
Every year, millions of dollars in federal grants earmarked specifically for training are spent by the department on education or skills training for thousands of adults, including hundreds of dislocated workers.
Education and training are primarily available under the Workforce Investment Act and the Trade Adjustment Assistance program.
The Department of Labor also reimburses employers under the Workforce Development Training Fund for the cost of training new workers or retraining to existing workers whose jobs could be eliminated.
Reimbursement can be as much as $3,000 per worker in rural areas, where an employer need only create or save one job, and $2,000 in urban areas, where five jobs must be created or saved by the employer to qualify. The jobs also have to pay at least $12 an hour and provide employer-assisted health care.
Since the fund was created in 1996, more than 175 businesses have sought financial assistance to train over 20,000 workers in every corner of Idaho.
Under the Workforce Investment Act, many more people use its job search assistance and referral services, but over 2,000 adults and dislocated workers take advantage of its job training opportunities each year:
• Occupational skills training such as vocational training through a community college.
• On-the-job training.
• Customized training.
• Entrepreneurial training.
• Skill upgrading and retraining.
While anyone can apply for these benefits, the program is targeted at adults from low income households. Participants must be at least 18, Idaho residents, U.S. citizens or eligible to work in the U.S. and if appropriate, have complied with Selective Service registration requirements.
In addition to those requirements, eligible dislocated workers must be unemployed due to:
• A plant closure or layoff within the past two years.
• The failure of self-employed business.
• Receiving notice of layoff with no likelihood of recall.
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The program is also open to displaced homemakers – adults who have spent years out of the work force taking care of homes and children who have lost their source of support, typically through divorce or death of the wage earner.
Training under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Reform Act of 2002 is targeted at workers who lose their jobs because of increased imports or when their employer shifts production to certain countries outside the U.S.
When suitable jobs are not available for these workers, the department can connect workers with available training services at no cost. If the training is located outside a worker’s normal commuting area, some transportation costs are also paid.
In addition, workers enrolled in approved training can continue receiving weekly unemployment benefits after their regular benefit allotments are exhausted for as long as the training lasts as long as they are making satisfactory progress.
The Trade Adjustment Assistance program also offers to reimburse 90 percent of the cost of looking for work outside the normal commuting area and of relocation expenses if a job is found in another area. Some workers adversely affected by foreign competition may even qualify for a tax credit of 65 percent of the cost of health coverage for themselves and their family.
In addition to workers of so-called certified primary businesses that were directly affected by foreign competition, employees indirectly affected may also be eligible if they were terminated by a company that:
Produced and supplied components directly to a certified primary firm.
Added value to a product or did final assembly or finishing work for a certified primary firm.
Family farmers and farm workers who are adversely affected by provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement but do not qualify for unemployment insurance benefits are also eligible for trade adjustment assistance if they worked at least eight weeks during the previous year.
To trigger training and other benefits under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program a petition must be filed with the state and federal labor departments by workers, their representative, the state Labor Department or other interested parties. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance must then determine that increased imports contributed to a company's decreased sales and production and whether a significant number of jobs have been lost or threatened.
Information about both the Workforce Investment Act and the Trade Adjustment Assistance program is on the Web at http://labor.idaho.gov/dnn/Default.aspx?tabid=690. Information on the Workforce Development Training Fund is also on the Web at http://labor.idaho.gov/publications/wdtfmarketingbrochure.pdf.