Eligibility
- Grant funds are limited to $15,000 per company per calendar year, $300 per instructional hour, and $3,000 per employee per course. Businesses are responsible for covering additional costs beyond these caps out-of-pocket.
- Massachusetts businesses with 100 or fewer Massachusetts W-2 employees may apply. In order to qualify, businesses must pay into the Workforce Training Fund. All for-profit companies pay into the fund.
- “Massachusetts businesses” are defined as companies with work being performed in Massachusetts that have an office, factory, warehouse or other physical location in Massachusetts. Neither employees’ home addresses nor P.O. boxes can be counted as locations for this purpose. Only companies that meet this definition and all other program guidelines can be approved for a Workforce Training Fund grant.
- All trainees must be full-time or part-time payroll employees of the company receiving an Express Program grant and must be employed in Massachusetts. (Trainees are not required to live in Massachusetts.)
- All applicants should be prepared to submit a Certificate of Good Standing (COGS) from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. All COGS should have the business’s legal name and a Notice Date within 6 months from the date of application submission. Click here to obtain your COGS from the Department of Revenue.
- Contractors or employees of other firms (e.g., temps) are not eligible to participate in grant-funded training.
- Eligible employers are encouraged to apply at any time for funding that is right sized to their current needs. Companies with 100 or fewer employees working in Massachusetts may apply and receive more than one Express Program grant at a time, up to a total of $15,000 in new grant funds per calendar year.
Reimbursements
- For any grant application received prior to November 1, 2024, at 5 pm, upon completion of an approved course, all grant recipients may request reimbursement for the total approved course, all grant recipients may request reimbursement for the total approved cost of training, as stipulated in their active Express Service Agreements.
- For applications received on or after November 1, 2024, at 5 pm:
- Businesses with 100 or fewer Massachusetts employees may receive reimbursement for an approved course of up to $300 per instructional hour, with a maximum of $3,000 per person per course. Any training costs exceeding these limits are the responsibility of the grant recipient.
- The Express Program will adjust award amounts based on businesses’ Massachusetts employee counts at the time of application as follows:
- Up to 100% reimbursement for organizations with up to 50 Massachusetts employees at the time of application.
- Up to 50% reimbursement for orgs with 51 to 100 Massachusetts employees at the time of application (*Note: an exception will be made for Express awards made for English for Speakers of Other Languages, or ESOL, courses.)
Training
- Training should not begin before the Express Service Agreement start date.
- Each training course should be completed within the timeframe entered in the application. Please notify us if your training schedule changes so we can update our record. All approved training must be completed within 12 months of the Express Service Agreement start date.
- On the Express Program application, businesses may indicate a “training start date” no later than 6 months from the date of application submission.
- Employees participating in the training program should not have previously participated in the same or similar training that was funded by a previous Workforce Training Fund grant, either through the Express or General Programs.
- Courses that a company is legally mandated to provide to its employees are not eligible for reimbursement under this program (e.g., OSHA).
- Applicants may only select courses that are listed on the Express Course Directory. However if you are interested in selecting a course that is not currently registered, you may wish to encourage the training provider to register the course.
- Employees must be paid at their regular pay rates during training hours.
- Live, synchronous, instructor-led virtual or remote training is permitted, but employees must attend training on paid time. Assignments or pre-work should also be completed on paid time.
- Express-funded workplace English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) training is most commonly conducted fully during working hours. However, trainees may volunteer to take part in workplace ESOL training on their own time (i.e. off the clock). A minimum of 50% of employees’ time spent in ESOL training must be on company time and paid at their regular rate.
- Commonwealth Corporation makes no endorsement regarding the quality of the training providers/courses listed in the directory. Businesses must conduct their own research and are responsible for confirming course availability and pricing with their selected training providers prior to submitting an application.
- Commonwealth Corporation does not offer the training listed in the directory ourselves, nor do we coordinate training (e.g., sign up, start and end dates, etc.) on behalf of the providers listed in our directory.
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