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Are you unemployed or under-employed? Have you been laid off or received a notice of lay-off? If so, you might be eligible for a government grant that can really help you get trained, certified and placed in your new career. There is no cost to you. Let’s see if you qualify!
With the amount of computer networks doubling every five years, the job demand for IT workers continues to shoot up for this high paid career. If you qualify you can use the WIOA grant to get the certifications the employers we work with are seekingasking for|: CompTIA, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, VMware and more
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of Security Analysts is projected to grow by 37 percent between 2012 and 2022, which is much stronger than average. Cyberseek.org’s supply and demand heat map shows over 700,000 job openings across the United States. Some markets are stronger than others. The Tampa/Clearwater/St. Petersburg job market pays well, because it has over 10,000 job opening and the number of certified workers is very small. The cyber-crime epidemic is expected to triple the number of open positions over the next five years. Employers desperately need workers who are certified in Security+, CISSP, Certified Security Analyst (CySA), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and Cisco CCNA Security
If you have prior management experience, one of the hottest job opportunities is in project management. In the Tampa/St. Petersburg job market the demand is especially strong for project managers and pays quite well. The Project Management Professional (PMP) is the most sought after certification for this field. Forbes magazine consistently ranks this certification in the top 5 each year. Other certifications in this field include ITIL, PMI-Agile, and Scrum Master
Responsible executive secretaries perform several administrative jobs and clerical tasks. Duties include providing assistance to managers and employees, assisting in daily office needs and being responsible for the company’s general administrative duties. The more skilled executive secretaries can make a surprisingly good salary if they have the necessary requirements. Certifications like Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) and QuickBooks can really help to move up in this career.
Instead of having us talk about ourselves, why don’t we see what our clients have to say.
It is called the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). it is a jobs program. WIOA provides free training grants to aid workers get trained, certified and placed in high demand fields such as IT, cyber-security, business intelligence, project management and more. The idea is that there are careers in which there are not enough certified workers and there are declining fields in which there are too many people. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) tries to fix this issue by providing free funding for job training in high demand fields to those who qualify for this grant. This training is designed to make your skills marketable so you can get hired and get back into the workforce. This is a grant, not a loan. If you qualify, everything is included, even the exam. The amounts vary by county but can be as high as $10,000 in some areas.
This is a jobs program so you must choose a program where there is a high likelihood of employment. Each county has a regionally targeted occupations list (RTOL) to choose from. They want to make sure you select a career that is in high demand. For each approved occupation, there will be approved training programs to choose from.
The 3 most prevalent categories are: Dislocated Worker, Adult Low Income and Youth (18 -25). If you have been laid off (or your position was eliminated or you were let go because of a reduction in force) from your last job, terminated, received a notice of layoff or are a military spouse you could get approved as a Dislocated worker. If you are on Food Stamps or government assistance, or have low income based on what you have earned the last six months and number of people in your family, then you could get approved under Adult Low Income. For youths age 18-24, you might get approved if you are not going to school. You must also be determined to be “suitable.” This is not an automatic approval. The process is perplexing so it is best to consult with us beforehand to see if you qualify.
You want a plan that can be finished in a short period of time that will boost your marketability enough to help get you a job. We look at the best ways to leverage your work history to add a certification that will make you attractive to employers and easier to get hired. Some occupations are ideal for this: cyber-security, information technology, project management, business analyst, human resources, executive secretaries and administrative assistants etc.
There is no cost to you if you qualify. Nothing to pay or any out of pocket expenses. This is a grant, not a loan. Even the exam(s) are paid for. So what is the catch? We will be working with a very bureaucratic government agency. The steps are overly complicated. A lot of schools are reluctant to work with WIOA if they can avoid doing so. I strongly advise you work with an expert.
Yes! The whole intent of this grant is to help you get back in the workforce. We have partnered with a staffing firm that has dedicated a person to work at our location exclusively with our clients. She assists with your resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, interview skills and most importantly, getting your resume in front of hiring managers. We work with over three thousand employers in Central Florida who use us for their training requirements. A lot of them recruit from us so we get many job leads that are not accessible to the general public. Over half the jobs we have helped place people in are not even advertised.
WIOA Specialist
I have over 20 years’ experience in higher education. I, too, was laid off from my position several years ago and struggled to get employed again because of ageism. Thankfully, I got hired again, but this time on the corporate side. Then I learned about the WIOA grant and understood what a boon this could be for the unemployed or people with a limited income. Most people do not like working with it becase of all the bureaucratic paperwork. The processes vary from one county to the next and are often changing. However, I have always been good at dealing with government bureaucracies. My experience working in colleges gives me an in depth awareness of the many career choices and what it takes to get hired. I now specialize in assisting veterans, out of work (and low income) workers who may be eligible for a government grant that will pay for them to get trained, certified and help them get placed in their career and achieve their goals. Let’s see what you qualify for!
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