Monday, October 13, 2014

My Adventures in College: Part 1: Dislocated Worker

I am creeping up on a full month of my adventures of being back in college. For the most part, it's just business as usual. There are some issues I am still dealing with, but they are slowly getting resolved.

I was laid off from my job of 7 years back in June of this year. Staff reduction, they called it. The company said they wouldn't contest any unemployment claims because there isn't enough work to keep me on their payroll.

I applied for unemployment, but the state of Washington Employment Securities Department (ESD) seems to be training me to join the circus because of all of the hoops they are making me jump through. I have yet to receive any payments from them to this day. Hopefully that will change soon.

I did get a letter in the mail from ESD today about applying for some Commissioner Approved Training Commissioner Approved Training (CAT) program funding. This would've been nice to know about a few months ago as I was preparing what I was going to do with my life. CAT seems like a good program because it will grant me the unemployment payments while I am in school without having to file a claim every week. Win.

As I was attending various workshops at my college prior to the Fall quarter beginning, I found out about a few programs that I should easily qualify for.

First, the Washington Worker Retraining program. This program is designed for people like me, who have been displaced from their jobs, for whatever reason, and get them into classes that will train them in the skills needed for the available in-demand jobs. This program is also for those who want to start their own businesses as well. Win for me, because that is exactly what I want to do in the near future.

Second, the Washington Opportunity Grant. This program, if qualified, will pay for tuition, fees, books and supplies, but only for up to 45 credit hours. That is equivalent to an Associate's Degree. I'm hoping they can reimburse me for the $300+ I have already spent on books for the Fall quarter and pick up for the Winter quarter. We'll see what happens.

I have also been doing some searching for no-essay grants/scholarships, and found a couple, but I'm not too sure of them yet, so I will not list them here to confuse people. I will make a future post with further details as I dive deeper into them.