Wisconsin Fast Forward Finishes Distributing Second Round Of Job Training Grants

Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development has finished awarding its second round of grants in the state’s Fast Forward program, which helps employers pay for worker training.

The second round of grants amounts to $3.4 million. The program gives employers some, but not all, the money they need to get their workers up to speed on new technology or to train new people.

The program is administered by the Office of Skills Development, the director of which is Scott Jansen. He says employers have to match between fifty cents to a dollar of the training.

“If it says there’s an intent to award $200,000, it’s not like we’re giving $200,000 before training begins,” said Jansen. “They’ve identified the budget to say, ‘Here’s the company, here’s the contractor or whoever’s going to incur the expense, here’s the line item.’ And we would have approved each one of those budget line items. And then when they receive the invoice and pay that, they submit that to us for reimbursement.”

The first round of grants was awarded in February and was geared toward manufacturing and construction. Jansen says the second round is broader.

“We … added to that financial services, information technologies, health care – then the fourth one is transportation-distribution-warehousing sector,” said Jansen. “Then we also added a seventh category out there for small businesses with employees less than 50 that they could apply regardless of the sector of the economy they’re serving.”

A total of $6 million in grants has been made. Jansen says a third round will go out in about two months. After that, he says, there could be a fourth round, if there’s money left. Wisconsin Fast Forward is budgeted at a total of $15 million.