LEARN: Launching Entrepreneurs Across Rural Networks

LEARN: Launching Entrepreneurs Across Rural Networks

What is LEARN?

LEARN stands for Launching Entrepreneurs Across Rural Networks.  LEARN is a grant program that provides training and business coaching to help dislocated workers interested in starting a business. It is being offered to rural Alabama residents from 2009 through 2012.

Self-Employment Options for Alabama residents

WIA eligible dislocated workers from North, Central and South Alabama who have lost their job have the LEARN program as another option for self-employment.  LEARN is a program that offers entrepreneurship training and one-on-one business counseling for those who want to start their own business.

Where is LEARN being offered?

LEARN is offered to dislocated workers through rural Alabama. Twenty counties are going to be covered with this program:

North Alabama: Limestone, Madison, Morgan, Marshall and Cullman

Central Alabama: Walker, Fayette, Pickens, Tuscaloosa, Bibb, Greene, Hale, Sumter and Perry

South Alabama: Montgomery, Bullock, Pike, Barbour, Coffee and Dale

What is exactly LEARN offering?

LEARN will provide a limited number of grants for training and one-on-one business counseling.

This grant offers free training through business classes that will help them gain the knowledge they need to start their own business.

Those who are selected for the grant will receive the following:

• Individual skills assessment
• Training in business classes
• Business counseling during and after completion of the training

Unemployment benefits will still be offered during the training through a work search waiver.

Who is eligible for LEARN (GATE) services?

• Interested candidates must be dislocated workers (lost a job through no fault of their own due to a business closing or layoff)
• Candidates have to be eligible for the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) program.
• Candidates must be 19 or older and eligible to work in the United States and have a legal business idea.
• Interested candidates for LEARN must complete an orientation session and apply for the LEARN grant.

How can a person apply for a grant?

It is very simple.

First, the potential participant needs to register at their local One Stop Career Center.

Also the candidate can sign-up via,

• Rapid Response on-site visit
• Mailing a manually filled out form to the LEARN office
• Make  a phone call to LEARN office at 1-866-968-5525

Second, after registration the potential candidate has to attend a scheduled Orientation Session or view the orientation video online.

Third, immediately after the Orientation Session, the potential participant is able to apply to the LEARN program by filling out a grant application.

How will the potential participant know if he/she got the grant?

Once the application is submitted, the potential participant will be notified by the LEARN office. A letter will be sent to them with the results.

What will happen to the interested candidate’s unemployment insurance or other benefits?

Being a participant in the LEARN program will not interfere with unemployment insurance or any other benefits they may be receiving. They may be eligible for a waiver from the Employment Security Commission (ESC) allowing them to suspend your job search activities and visits to the ESC office while they work on developing their business.

What’s next?

Please take a registration brochure. After you register you will receive a phone call from the LEARN office about your orientation date. You have to attend the orientation session in order to be able to apply for the grant.  After the orientation session, you may talk to the business counselor at the service provider location you chose and fill out an application form manually or electronically. After the LEARN Office receives your application  you will be notified of the results within one week.

LEARN Program
Box 870208
The University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487

www.learnala.org
Toll Free: 1-866-968-5525
Fax: 205-348-6327