Truck Driving School Paid By Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Funding

This is my experience on how to apply for and obtain a Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Funding to pay for Truck Driver's School. My hope is, as I wade through the WIA approval process or red tape, I will post my experiences here as I complete each step/part of the WIA approval process. I hope these post will help others on this website who are looking for a way to pay for truck driver's school, to obtain WIA Funding. Keep in mind I live in Texas so the steps I am taking to obtain the WIA funding is through the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). If I understand correctly, WIA Funds are Federal Funds available in all States and that it is up to each individual State to qualify each individual person and distribute the Funds to the WIA approved schools.

The WIA is a Federally funded program for the unemployed, underemployed, in finding employment as quickly as possible LOL (Quick ha ha ha), anyway, with the skills they already have or train with new skills through training at approved schools.

Basic eligibility requirements are: Legal to work in the US, at least 18 years old, meet the low-income adult relative to size of family or dislocated worker having lost employment recently, if male-registered with the Selective Service

Please excuse me if this first post is long. To tell you the complete process I must catch you up to where I am currently at in the process. Again I will update you on each step of the process as I complete them so keep in mind, due to the hurry up and wait mentality of the government, red tape process, there could be days, weeks or even months between each update post.

Step one (1), 05/23/2013, 10:00 AM

I had to attend a regularly scheduled monthly, Adult WIA Orientation, where you fight to keep your eyes open despite loading up on liquid caffeine. The orientation lasted about 45 minutes. They go over the process of obtaining the WIA Funding, the do's and dont's and what the qualifications are.

Step two (2), 05/23/2013, 10:45 AM

I had to call the Intake Specialist to request an appointment by leaving a voice-mail letting her know I wanted to obtain the WIA Funding.

Step three (3), 06-05-2013, 11:00 AM

The Intake Specialist called me and set up appointment to meet at her TWC Office for today, 06-12-2013, at 10:30 AM.

Step four (4), 06-12-2013, the meeting is over and I am told I meet the qualifications. It was just an informal meeting with the Intake Specialist. She asked to see identification including a Social Security Card, updated and entered information from my one page WIA application. The Specialist told me that now I must wait for one of the Career Scope Staff to contact me by phone to set up a Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE). I am told it may be several days to a couple of weeks before I hear from the Career Scope person. We shall see. I will let you know what happens next when it happens.

 

That might be for some RickG but for me I spent 25 years in my last job that was no cake walk. I am a not one to give up as the other 10% you quote are on this form who will NOT abuse a tax funded program. I doubt your numbers are correct otherwise there would not be the thousands of good men out there driving hard like youself every day for the family. If your numbers are correct, so be it, then my post is for the honest 10% to get the honest help so we can get back to being employed and paying taxes like everyone else. Don't knock the honest 10% like me because of the other 90%.

 

Sorry ladies that I left you out of my last post. There are thousands of women truckers out there as well working hard for the family as well. Many of men and women out there need the help to get started and I believe most are honest, upstanding and hard working that would never give in or give up, much less abuse any program to get back to work.

 

You got to remember who is doing the training. I have been doing my research. Most newbies are trained at company sponsered schools who do all their own training in house. Most fail because the in house training is only about the numbers, fill the open positions at all cost. These are the schools that do not get the WIA funds. The school I hope to attend is certified and is through a community college where the classes and driving time have specific amount of time and if you do not pass the test given in each section of the class, you fail the class. No one is allowed to hold your hand and pass you at all cost. Like it or not, there are good certified schools that really teach, especially when they are not connected to a trucking company and where each student must pay their own way. Don't knock the guy like me who has what it takes. Again my no cake walk job for 25 years speaks for its self. I am no young guy trying to still figure out life. I know when, where and how to pick my battles and I actually can read a legal contract before signing it so I know what I am getting into. I got a feeling there are a lot more like me out there otherwise, going by your numbers, there will soon be no truckers left.

 

Newbietrucker, start with your State's Employment Office. I bet the process is much the same in any state. Since Texas is at the Texas Workforce Commission-TWC (Texas's employment office). CA most likely has an Employment Office where the WIA Funds are made available if you meet the qualifications. I found ours by going to the the TWC website. Check CA's Employment Office website to start with.