As part of the Greater Mankato Growth Talent Initiative, GMG is publishing a guest blog series highlighting the programs, tools and resources that are available in our marketplace. This series can serve as a catalog or library for businesses to address workforce issues. 

Activating Our Workforce:  Salary Reimbursement

Written by: Connie Hines, Workforce Center, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development

Every business knows the difficulty of finding skilled workers.  Training is usually necessary to get a recent hire up to speed.  Workers with needed skill sets are difficult to find.  Businesses are more frequently finding themselves in the situation of searching for training opportunities, whether they are in-house or through an outside party.

Funding is available to reimburse businesses 50% of a new worker’s wages as a training reimbursement.  The worker must be a “dislocated/displaced worker” who has been permanently laid off from their last job.  The program called OJT (On the Job Training) is operated through the local Mankato Workforce Center/Department of Employment and Economic Development.  The staff at the Workforce Center would assure the applicant is eligible, determine the length of the reimbursement and prepare an agreement to be signed by the business.  These steps can happen within a week as the program is locally administered.  There are never any paybacks or penalties should the worker not perform as expected.

Call Larry Bateman (507-344-2606) today at Mankato Workforce Center and learn more about this great opportunity to custom train new workers to your specific business needs while receiving a training reimbursement.