Did you know that there is a new program from the Department of Unemployment that helps you keep collecting your unemployment check, while at the same time continuing or expanding your education to better improve yourself?
This program is called The California Training Benefit Program. It will prepare you to get a better job if you have been unable to find one.
It is difficult to find work right now, which is why President Obama passed a bill on May 8, 2009 that allows the unemployed to continue their education because of the inability to find a job that suits your qualifications and experiences.
Depending on your financial status, you may qualify for FAFSA under the "Initiative for Federal Job Training or Education," for the academic year 2009/2010.
It is a mandatory program and that expands the eligibility criteria of Financial Aid and is easy to apply and/or qualify, as it is mostly depending on your unemployment status.
Financial Services will approve you under "special circumstances" for being unemployed yourself, your spouse, or parents. This will help you better your education while expanding your knowledge for a better job giving you the opportunity to completely enhance their education and open many doors for your future.
There are some criterias to follow; below is some information directly from the Department of Unemployment.
“Other Than Automatic Director's Approval (hereafter referred to as "OTHER" training). Training benefits will be approved for all "OTHER" training participants if the individual meets the following criteria:
Has been unemployed for four or more continuous weeks. This requirement may be waived if the claimant meets the waiver criteria below. When counting the four or more continuous weeks, begin with the first Sunday following the last week in which the claimant was fully employed under the provisions of Unemployment Insurance Code 1252.
Waiver criteria to the continuous week rule
· The individual is unemployed and unlikely to return to his or her most recent workplace because, work opportunities in the individual's job classification are impaired by a plant closure, or
· There was a substantial reduction in employment at the individual's most recent workplace, by advancement in technological improvements, by the effects of automation and relocation in the economy, or
· The individual is unemployed because of a mental or physical disability which prohibits the him or her from utilizing existing occupational skills.
One of the substantial causes of the individual’s unemployment is a lack of sufficient current demand in the individual’s labor market area for the occupational skills for which the individual is fitted by training and experience or current physical or mental capacity and that the lack of employment opportunities is expected to continue for an extended period of time, or, if the individual’s occupation is one for which there is a seasonal variation in demand in the labor market and the individual has no other skill for which there is current demand.”
For more information visit your Department of Federal Student Aid/Financial Services, Riverside Community College of Moreno Valley located in the building of STU; Second floor; Room 204; telephone number (951) 571-6139. Or visit the Unemployment Department internet website information page at: www.edd.ca.gov/UIBDG/Miscellaneous_MI_85.htm
