Have you ever said this?
“My employees need training, but our budget is tight.”
“Our management team has grown a lot with our company, but the majority don’t have formal training. It would be great to provide them with access to leadership and development training. But where do we even begin?”
We’re sure glad you asked.
As L&D gate-openers, we’ll let you in on our best-kept secret (that’s not really a secret).
Your business could qualify for up to $500,000 in training grants.
That’s free money in your business’s proverbial pocket to power your organization’s success through training that’ll upskill your workforce.
When it comes to applying for training grants, here are three things you need to know before putting pen to paper:
1️. Training grants are available across almost all 50 states.
Grants are our government’s way of proactively combating unemployment. By giving businesses the financial resources to upskill their workforce, employees can keep up with on-demand skills and have a competitive advantage in the market, which means less unemployment. Hooray!
Here’s our list of the top five states that offer robust training grants to support workforce development:
- New York
↳ Specifically, if your business operates out of the Big Apple (New York City), you could qualify for up to $400,000 in training grant funds.
- California
↳ Another ample opportunity, California business owners can qualify for up to $500,000 in training grant funds.
- New Hampshire
↳ The Granite State offers businesses up to $70,000 in training grant funds.
- Rhode Island
↳ Rhode Island businesses can access up to $30,000 in training grant funds.
- Pennsylvania
↳ The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania offers up to $100,000 in training grant funds.
Wherever your business calls home, we’ve got you covered with our Grant Writing program that’s helped small and large businesses secure a total of $4.85 million in training grants.
2. Training grants come in all shapes and sizes.
Funds are unique to your state. Awards can range from as small as $10K to a hefty chunk of change in the $400K to $500K range. For example, in our home base of Massachusetts, training grants range from $10K to $200K. However, from our experience, we’ve helped add an average of $134,000 in training grants to each of our clients training budgets, which has helped train over 3,000 employees.
3. Training grant applications must demonstrate why they merit state funding.
If you’re ready to power your people and business forward with training grants in 2024 (or even 2025), it’s important to:
- Prepare your application well in advance,
- Get clear on your business goals and needs,
- Gather relevant data that’ll translate into a winning application.
The application process is lengthy (think anywhere from 90+ days to submit and have your application reviewed and approved by the state) and requires a significant lift to provide metrics that back up each of your training wants/needs.
Start by clearly defining your organization’s goals, which should inform your business training needs, and use data to associate the success of your training programs once the grant(s) are awarded.
So there you go, grant training decoded.
Training grants provide the skills your team needs to know to be successful in their role – and move your business forward.
And you don’t have to front all the costs.
As your business learning partner, we’re here to make a not-so-enjoyable process a little more enjoyable.
That starts by going beyond writing the application for you. We stick with you to manage the grant from start to finish. After we apply on your behalf, we’ll be right there with you, helping you vet and schedule training programs after funds are awarded. We also meet at the one-year mark to ensure your grant funds work to achieve your organizational goals.
Because we know what states love (and don’t love), we match our client’s business goals and needs with a strong application that hits the nail on the head every time. (We’re not joking, 100% of our grant clients are awarded training funds!)
Tap into free funds to power your people by shooting us an email at connect@buildingppl.com to get started today.
