First Step In Indiana's COVID-19 Job Recovery Plan: Offer Workers Retraining Grants

The Governor’s Workforce Cabinet is partnering with a nonprofit to provide workers with information about the state’s Workforce Ready grants for job certifications. It’s the first step in a multi-agency job recovery plan the state is calling “Rapid Recovery For A Better Future.”

Workforce Ready Grants pay for tuition and fees to enroll in a community college job certification program the state deems as having “high value.” It includes advanced manufacturing, health services and IT services.

INvestED typically advises Hoosiers on paying for college, but is making seven financial aid experts available to answer questions about the grant.

"So we're just kind of a connector and a question answerer to let the people know how to most easily access these wonderful programs and dollars that exist," says Bill Wozniak, vice president of marketing at INvestEd.

READ MORE: Governor Holcomb Outlines How – And Why – The State Will Reopen

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Teresa Lubbers leads the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet, as well as the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. She says along the way, they hope to identify common questions and issues before announcing other programs to help workers recover from the pandemic. 

“So this gives us about a two-week runway to lead into the official launch of rapid recovery,” she says. “And we really do think that this work with INvestED will provide good information for us to figure out how we can do this.”

A website titled “Your Next Step” is slated to come in early June that will provide more information on career counseling, skills assessment, and resources for employers.

Contact Justin at jhicks@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @Hicks_JustinM.