If you’ve been laid off due to COVID-19, college may not be anywhere near your radar. You’ve had enough stress for one year, and money is tight. But what if you could go back to college for free and get help finding a new job at the end of your studies? Say hello to Workforce Education Funding.
Workforce Education Funding is a grant program that offers free tuition for unemployed or low-income Washington State residents to earn a degree in a professional-technical training program. Programs that run the gamut from dental hygiene to clean energy technology, graphic design to CNC Machining.
Here are five reasons to complete a professional-technical program during COVID:
- The only thing we know about the world after COVID is it will look different. Multiple industries sustained lay-offs because they couldn’t make the shift to online-only interactions. So it makes sense to use your time away from the workforce to gain skills in a discipline that can.
Many professional-technical careers can, if needed, be done entirely remotely. Our graphic design, purchase and supply chain management, health informatics and information management programs, just to name a few, all train you for careers that can be done online.
And there are plenty of professional-technical careers that aren’t done remotely but still weathered the pandemic. Clean energy technology, dental hygiene, and nursing all continued despite widespread lockdowns. A degree in an essential industry means better odds of staying employed the next time the economy slows. - This may be the only time you’ll ever be able to go back to school for free, so maybe it’s time to give that passion career you’ve always dreamt about a go! Not only does Workforce Education Funding pay for tuition, it also covers books and fees. So if you’re a travel agent who’s always dreamed of being a filmmaker (yes, that’s considered a professional-technical program!), but never thought you could afford the switch – now you can.
- Networking is hard these days with everyone sitting at home. Going back to college helps you up your networking game by providing access to industry-expert instructors, classmates with their own career networks, and the entire Workforce Education department, which has a pulse on the local job market and connections to employers.
- In a tough market, your degree comes with job search assistance. The State of Washington is training you for a job for a reason – it wants you to find one! So the Workforce Education Funding program helps you look while giving you access to career advising, interview training, and more.
- Most professional-technical careers come with an entry-level salary that is anything but. Employers in these fields are searching for workers who can hit the ground running, and they’re willing to pay for well-trained new graduates. That means you can earn a living wage your first year on the job, student-debt free.
We don’t know what the world will like when COVID-19 is over. But the people who will come out on top are the ones that take charge of their future and train for the career they want, now.
Learn more about Workforce Education Funding by attending one of our many upcoming virtual open house sessions. Check the college calendar for event listings for general funding information sessions, as well as program-specific open houses.
You can also learn more on our Workforce Education Funding webpage. And be sure to check out our many qualifying professional-technical degree options.