At the conclusion of one of our recent training courses, an attendee from Wyoming approached the professor with a form to sign. It was a Wyoming Workforce Development Training Fund form. The attendee informed the professor that the state of Wyoming would reimburse his training fees, up to $2,000, through a grant from the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services. Essentially, the attendee was receiving free training by gaining pre-approval of the course and then providing documentation of the training fees. That seemed simple enough.
So if the state of Wyoming was providing free training fees, why wasn’t everyone taking advantage of it? Did I mention FREE training? Perhaps employees didn’t know this grant was available. Or maybe businesses weren’t informing their employees of this opportunity. Whatever the case, the Workforce Development Training Fund was established to help build a workforce of competitive and competent Wyoming workers. Training compensation is available to employees with an existing position at work who require a skill upgrade or new employees who require training in their area of work.
If you are an employed worker in the state of Wyoming this grant is for you! Below is a list of the requirements to become approved for a training grant. See if you qualify or your employer qualifies.
- A business entity that is registered with the Wyoming Secretary of State to conduct business in Wyoming.
- The business entity must be in good standing with the Wyoming Unemployment Insurance program, Wyoming Workers Compensation program, Wyoming Secretary of State’s office, and the Workforce Development Training Fund.
- Training will either correct an employee’s skill deficiency or upgrade an employee’s current skill level.
- There must be a direct relationship between the training and the trainee’s occupation or craft.
- The training is not normally provided by the business entity.
- The business entity will not substitute funds normally provided for training or funds obtained from another source with Business Training Grant funds.
- There is a need for the skill upgrade provided by the training for the business entity to remain competitive in the industry or economy.
- The skill upgrade provided by the training will enhance the business entity’s productivity or profitability, reduce employee turnover, or enhance employee wages.
Grants of up to $2,000 are renewable each fiscal year for qualified employees or businesses. You can find out more at http://soswy.state.wy.us/Rules/RULES/5535.pdf.
ASPE’s training courses have previous success of gaining grant approval. If you are a web designer interested in mastering SharePoint 2010 our SharePoint 2010 Boot Camp can help increase your worker productivity. See all of our course offerings at www.aspe-it.com which include,
- SharePoint Training
- Cloud & Virtualization
- Systems & Databases
- Microsoft Tools
- Security & ITIL
- Virtual Training
Wyoming isn’t the only state to establish training grants for employees and employers. These five states also offer training compensation with similar requirements and value of compensation.
