Menu
Are you unemployed or under-employed? Have you been laid off or received a notice of lay-off? If so, you might qualify for a 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 number of computer networks doubling every 5 years, the job demand for IT employees 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, Azure and more
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of information security analysts is projected to grow 32 percent from 2022 to 2032, which is much stronger than average. Cyberseek.org’s supply and demand heat map shows over 5500,000 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 7,000 job opening and the amount of qualified workers is very low. The cyber-crime epidemic is expected to triple the number of job openings over the next 5 years. Employers badly need employees who are certified in Security+, CISSP, Certified Security Analyst (CySA), and/or Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH).
If you have management experience, one of the strongest job opportunities is in project management. In the Tampa/St. Petersburg job market the need 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, Agile Master, and Scrum Master
Responsible executive secretaries perform many administrative jobs and clerical tasks. Duties include providing help to managers and employees, assisting in every day office needs and being responsible for the company’s general administrative duties. The more qualified executive secretaries can make a surprisingly good salary if they have the necessary skills. Certifications like Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) can really help to move up in this profession.
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. It provides free training grants to assist workers get trained, certified and placed in high demand careers such as information technology, cyber-security, business analysis, project management and more. The idea is that there are careers in which there are not enough qualified workers and there are declining careers in which there are too many people. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) addresses this problem by providing free funding for career training in high demand fields to those who are eligible for this grant. This training is intended to make your resume marketable so you can get a job and get back into the workforce. This is a grant, not a loan. If you qualify, everything is paid for, even the exam. The amounts vary by county but can be as high as $10,000 depending where you live.
This is a jobs program so you must choose something where there is a high expectation 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 plans to choose from.
The 3 most common classes 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 layoff notice or are a military spouse you might get approved as a Dislocated worker. If you are on Food Stamps or government assistance, or have low income based on last 6 month’s earnings and family size, then you could get approved under Adult Low Income. For youths age 18-24, you might get approved if you are not enrolled in school. You must also be found to be “suitable.” This is not an automatic approval. The process is perplexing so it is best to discuss this with us first to see if you qualify.
You want a plan that can be finished in a short period of time that will raise your marketability enough to help get you hired. We look at the best ways to take advantage of your work history to add a certification that will make you attractive to hiring managers and easier to get hired. Some career choices are ideal for this: cyber-security, information technology, project management, business analyst, human resources, executive secretaries and administrative assistants etc.
There is no charge to you if you are eligible. No reimbursement or any personal 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 remarkably bureaucratic government agency. The process is overly complicated. A number of schools are averse 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 teamed up with a staffing company that has dedicated a person to work at our facility exclusively with our clients. She assists with your resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, interview techniques and most importantly, getting your resume in front of hiring managers. We work with over 3,000 employers in Central Florida who use us for their training needs. 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.