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Wisconsin has been moving aggressively with their portion of the re-employment funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (The Recovery Act) to help put people back to work. The legislation provided $400 million for all states, and of that amount, Wisconsin dedicated $7.2 million to re-employment services for individuals receiving Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits. This is in addition to $3.8 million from their UI administrative funding for a total investment in Re-employment Services (RES) of $10 million.

Roberta Gassman, Secretary, Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD), outlined the goals of these new funds at NASWA's Annual Conference in September: (1) reaching more UI claimants through in-person sessions and (2) providing an "assessment path" to help UI claimants transition into "high demand" occupations.

In order to reach more UI claimants, Secretary Gassman's agency hired an additional 50 staff members, most of whom travel to mobile sites throughout the state to conduct initial assessments with groups of UI claimants. In addition to having DWD staff in 22 of Wisconsin's Job Centers, the state has added 25 mobile sites, increasing Wisconsin's capacity to serve UI claimants by almost fourfold.

"Our goal was to ensure UI claimants would not have to travel more than 30 miles for re-employment services and the Recovery Act made that possible," said Secretary Gassman.

Since July 1, Wisconsin has held 920 re-employment sessions serving almost 7,500 UI claimants. The state is averaging 100 in-person sessions a week serving, on average, 750 UI claimants. This compares to only 10 weekly sessions serving 200 UI claimants before the Recovery Act funding became available.

"After the initial assessment, our re-employment team determines the best follow-up service and the RES funds made it possible to administer a robust assessment tool. UI claimants first take a Workplace Skills Builder pre-assessment tool followed by a National Career Readiness Certificate," said Secretary Gassman.

Wisconsin plans to administer the pre-assessment tool to 20,000 UI claimants at a cost of approximately $5.00 per test. The state also plans to award between 12,000 to15,000 National Career Readiness Certificates, verifying to employers that an individual has essential core employability skills in Reading, Math, and Locating Information. The Career Readiness Certificates (CRC) have become popular nationwide as a system for certifying the basic skills necessary for success in many jobs.

Secretary Gassman also explained Recovery Act funds made it possible for Wisconsin to adopt a "triage" approach for UI claimants. "This recession hit professions all across the spectrum and we have found that claimants require various services," noted the Secretary.

Wisconsin "triages" UI claimants in the following manner:

• Refers UI claimants to their partner agencies for WIA Adult training, Vocational Rehabilitation, Veterans and Older Worker services.
• Provides counseling to individuals if they are interested in changing a career and need direction.
• Connects UI claimants with resources to write and improve their resume, practice interviewing skills and search for jobs through JobCenterofWisconsin.com.