A Saga of No Worker Left Behind

For many people in Michigan there is a fairly well known about program to help unemployed, and low income residents get career training.  In the state it is known as No Worker Left Behind (NWLB) and was set up by Governor Granholm.  The theory is that workers will get up to $10,000 over 2 years to pay for training, i.e. degree, certification, trade school, etc will be far better prepared to reenter the workforce.  Really the program is aimed at taking our manufacturing base and giving them a new set of skills.

This program is statistically said to be a great success by the state according to its own published reports.  The state was surprised to learn that professional working or previously working adults would be ready to line up around a block to get a shot at $10,000 towards school.  The lack of understanding on this point is probably the biggest pitfall of all.

Here is my experience with the No Worker Left Behind (NWLB) program:

I signed up for my No Worker Left Behind orientation the day I verified my unemployment status.  The NWLB orientation was about one month after I inquired about it. To sign up for NWLB you will go to your local MI Works! Location and inquire how to get started.

You will get very little information about the program from the MI Works! employees, they will most likely roll their eyes because everyone and their brother want $10k to spend on school.  So the workers will tell you something along the lines of here is a slip with your orientation appointment date and time, and simply tell you you’ll learn all about it at this meeting.

At the time when I did this it was one month from the date I signed up, because of the huge demand for the NWLB program.

During the orientation you’ll learn that you have to meet certain requirements to get into the program and be in a particular field of study to get in, which they try to keep secret.  These fields of study will be the most rapidly growing sectors of business as determined by the state, this list can actually be found posted in your local MI Works! Location.

Orientation

My orientation lasted from 11:30 which was running about 5 minutes late until 1:30, I was also one of the first people done with my testing portion and left the room early because of my head start filling out the paperwork.

What you can expect in this orientation is that you will fill out a lot of paperwork, and be subjected to a test.

I learned in the orientation was that it became clear that the requirements are very lax and as long as everyone shows up for their assessment (which many people did not know they had to take) you can advance through the process and get the mythical $5,000 a year for 2 years total $10,000 towards school and training.  In fact if you were to fail part of the exam or both parts which is reading and comprehension and mathematics you can take it again.  If a tester were to fail twice they can still advance but will need to meet with a career advisor to help hone their skills and possibly get more help with reading and math skills.

I didn’t think that the test was terribly complicated but I can see where some people cracked under the pressure, and have simply been functioning on autopilot at the same job for the last 10-30 years tend to put mathematics on the backburner.

You’ll fill out a lot of different paperwork with the same information like name, date of birth, social security number, address, etc.  It gets to be pretty repetitive and dull very quickly.

Second Orientation

The second part of the No Worker Left Behind program is supposed to be a meeting from 9 am to 11pm to get us more details, and was about one month after the first.

It was at this point that the NWLB people came in and pricked the balloon that we’d all be getting our $5000 training and hit the ground running.  I was told that being from the “March” group the office was still trying to get the group from last December sorted out and paid.  It turned out to be a little more disappointing than that, as we learned the program didn’t really have any money.

Everyone was just sitting on the sidelines filling out more paperwork to try and get money towards retraining or formal education.  The other stipulations were that you were expected to be a part time student, I had inquired if you could be full time student which I was told yes; but you would not be given extra money.  It is assumed in the program that $5000 will cover a you to be a part time student for a year, anything above and beyond you are on the hook for.  They will also not pay for previous student costs like past loans, which seems to be fair.

The last topics we talked about were if each of us were actually capable of taking classes or attending training.  We were reminded that maybe we have families, and dependants that need to be looked after.  So everyone was subjected to a logistical lecture to make sure we were fully prepared and could find a way to get children sitters, other family members that need to be cared for attention that they require while affording to live on either subpar pay, or unemployment, while not forgetting to look for a job, or maintain our current terrible jobs.

So we were given a packet of information to fill out and then schedule an appointment to meet with our advisor, to formally accept that we were competent to begin retraining.  In this packet you are supposed to pick an area of training, and find a school that is not a fly by night training center that is not just taking your NWLB money, or taking your money for the difference.

Third Meeting

I filled out my packet of information and called to schedule my appointment which should be no surprise by now, was for an entire month later.  My advice would be to schedule your appointment immediately even if you are not done with your packet.

My situation was considerably different than what my advisor was used to working with, I was a current student who had a full time job and was laid off.  So the NWLB funds were just going to help me continue my current path, my need to pick a degree, and school were not required.  I was told that I would have to basically wait until more money was available at which I pretty much fell off the radar.  I decided I couldn’t wait as I had been going to school, I wasn’t going to wait around for government money to bail me out.  So I finished my degree on my own dime, and NWLB has been an afterthought for me since.

Final thoughts

There is currently a great piece on the NWLB program at the Detroit News part one can be found here, and part two can be found here.

The Detroit News is also running a piece that essentially says the NWLB program is maxed out for the year, and wait lists might not be happening.

If anyone else has experience with the program leave some comments on how it worked out for you, good, bad or indifferent.