TAA Newsletter- July 2016
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Coordinator’s Corner
- Staff Update
- Fall Semester Reminder
- TAA Benchmarks - Grades and Training Progress Reports
- Dropped Training
- US Training Only
- Name Change
Coordinator's Corner
Welcome to mid-summer and Happy Independence Day,
everyone! 2016 has been a busy year for the TAA team. The new law—TAARA
2015—went into effect 9/28/15, allowing service sector workers to receive TAA
benefits once again. At the same time, there have been mass layoffs and TAA
certifications on the Iron Range. During the past year, TAA has nearly
tripled the number of petitions filed for Minnesotans in an average year,
resulting in many additional people to serve!
All petitions certified during
the 2014 reversion automatically transitioned to 2015 law so waivers must be accompanied by a training plan.
Staff Update
Five new staff members have joined the TAA team in the last
two weeks. Safia Moalin and Barlin Ahmed are Step-Up Interns who are
with us for the summer months. They are learning about our case
management process, providing outreach services to eligible participants, and
will be answering our general TAA phone and email lines. In addition, we
have hired three new TAA Specialists bringing our team of specialists to
ten. This will allow each TAA Specialists to case manage one SSN digit each.
New TAA team members are:
-
Jennifer
Anderson joins us from Workforce Development, and has inherited the “9’s”;
-
Maria
Estela Hernandez (she goes by Estela) comes from Unemployment Insurance and
the REASA program, and has been assigned the “6’s”.
-
Mary
Garcia, a former Unemployment Insurance staff member, who has been running
a small business. Her first day was June 29. Mary will be taking the 1s
as of July 18.
Please join us in welcoming Safia, Barlin, Jennifer, Estela,
and Mary to the team!
Fall Semester Reminder
Fall semester is just around the corner. Please have
TAA eligible participants send in training applications as soon as
possible. Due to thousands of newly certified workers in Minnesota, there
is a strong possibility that TAA will not be able to process training
applications sent less than two weeks prior to a training start date.
TAA Training Applications need to have the participant’s
student ID listed as that aids in the tuition payment process to schools. If
not immediately available, please communicate once it is received.
If the participant is attending multiple schools, TAA asks
that the Dislocated Worker Counselor please add a note to the email that
contains course registration alerting the TAA Specialist.
TAA Benchmarks - Grades and Training Progress Reports
A requirement of TAA eligible participants in full time
training is to provide training benchmarks every 60 days—so each midterm and
end of term, TAA needs to receive a progress report that has been signed by the
participant’s advisor or course instructor and the Dislocated Worker Counselor.
Grades are also required at the end of each term. (TAA attaches progress report
forms to all TAA Training Approval emails.) http://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/dislocated-worker/counselors/forms/index.jsp
If the participant fails two benchmarks in a row, he or she
must submit to the TAA Specialist a training modification plan that has been
signed by the Dislocated Worker Counselor.
Dropped Training
Dislocated Worker Counselors must notify TAA immediately via
email if a participant is not going to continue training so that TAA can halt
all school and reimbursement purchase orders and notify TRA regarding the
participant’s extended unemployment benefit. Please cc TRA on the email
notification so that overpayment to the participant can be avoided.
Activity closure/deletion—TAA can’t close the Occupational
Skills Training Activity until DW has done so since the Credential is linked to
the DW Activity.
If the participant has registered for classes, confirm that
the participant has officially dropped out of school. If TAA is charged for
anything by the school, that entire semester counts toward the participant’s
training plan/training weeks should the participant wish to resume training at
a later date (for example, the customer contacts you to say he’s not going to
school, but doesn’t actually drop his classes, the school charges TAA for the
first week of classes).
USA Training Only
Trade Adjustment Assistance can only support training taught
within the United States, per federal regulation 20 CFR 617.22 (i). Even
if part of the training is overseas, such as a J-term, May-term, or “field
trip,” this is not permissible. Federal regulations take precedence over DEED
policies. As a result, TAA has updated the Choice of
Training Institutions policy to include this information.
Name Change
You may have noticed an additional last name on the TAA
Coordinator’s signature line starting last fall. Deb got married and she feels
that Gramza is easier to spell and pronounce than Schlekewy! Her email
address has been updated to Debra.Gramza@state.mn.us.
If you happen to send a message to the previous email address (Debra.Schlekewy@state.mn.us), it
will route to the new address for one year. All other contact information
remains the same.
We strive for the information in this newsletter to be relevant and
useful, and we encourage you to provide feedback and suggestions for future TAA
Topics or TAA Success Stories. To contact the TAA team regarding this
newsletter, please e-mail: adele.cloutier@state.mn.us and type “TAA
Newsletter” in the subject line.
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