Reemployment assistance training programs are available to assist those who need and desire training. The programs are intended to help workers who are dislocated due to outdated skills, an occupation in decline, competition from foreign imports, or an inability to perform their customary occupation. A dislocated worker counselor or a reemployment assistance representative at a WorkForce Center may recommend a training program to you, or you may already know what training you need to become reemployed in a good job.
A reemployment assistance representative or dislocated worker counselor will consider a number of factors when determining if a training program is the best approach for you to obtain suitable employment in the least amount of time, including:
- Your current skills, physical capabilities, work
experience, level of education and past training;
- Your prospects for obtaining suitable employment
given your current skills compared to your
employability following the training;
- Description of the training program (academic/vocational
nature of the training, curriculum, length, etc.);
- Current labor market conditions; and,
- Work opportunities projected to be available at the
time the training will be completed.
If you are accepted into a full-time reemployment assistance training program, you are not required to seek or accept work while you are attending school. Going to class and making satisfactory progress makes you eligible for unemployment benefits. When you finish, you must immediately begin seeking work.
If you are going to school part-time, or your full-time schooling is not accepted as reemployment assistance training, you are eligible for unemployment benefits only if you are available for and actively seeking suitable employment (full-time work if your benefits are based on full-time work). If your class schedule conflicts with the normal days or hours of work in your occupation, you must be willing to rearrange or quit classes if you are offered suitable work.
If you are registered or attending school at the time you apply for unemployment benefits, answer "Yes" to the application question, "Are you attending school now?"
If you register for school after you applied for unemployment benefits, the next time you request your weekly benefits answer "No" to the question, "Were you able, available and actively seeking full time work?"
You will be provided a questionnaire or talk to a representative so you can inform the unemployment office about your schooling. If it is determined to be full-time reemployment assistance training, you will be informed that you do not have to seek work. Each week when you request benefits, you will be asked, “Did you make satisfactory progress in training?” instead of the questions about seeking work and being available for work.
