What WIOA looks like in Hawaii
Hawaii runs WIOA through the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR). Its Workforce Development Division delivers services. The Workforce Development Council, a 41-member body inside DLIR, is the state board. Each county has its own local board and its own American Job Center: four boards, four centers, one per island group. The state's online system is HireNet Hawaii. It carries sign-up, job matching, and the Eligible Training Provider List. Reference: labor.hawaii.gov/wdd.
For you, it works like this. Sign up on HireNet Hawaii. Contact the American Job Center for your county. Work with a case manager on the application and papers. Agree on a plan. Pick a program on the ETPL Approved Programs list in HireNet. Then you get an Individual Training Account that pays the school directly. WIOA in Hawaii can cover tuition, training fees, and extras such as rides or child care. That matters on islands where the program you want may not be on yours.
Who administers WIOA in Hawaii
- DLIR's Workforce Development Division runs WIOA Title I day to day and reports results to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Workforce Development Council sets policy, keeps the ETPL rules, and oversees the four local boards. It meets about every two months. The next meeting after September 10 is November 12, 2026.
- Four local workforce boards: the Oahu Workforce Development Board (City and County of Honolulu), the Hawaii County Workforce Development Board, the Maui County Workforce Development Board (Maui, Molokai, and Lanai), and the Kauai Workforce Development Board. Each writes its own training rules and its own in-demand job list.
- Four American Job Centers, one per board. Oahu: Dole Cannery, 680 Iwilei Road, Suite 700, Honolulu, (808) 768-5701. Hawaii Island: 88 Kanoelehua Avenue, Suite A-204, Hilo, (808) 935-6527. Maui: 110 Alaihi Street, Suite 209, Kahului, (808) 270-5777. Kauai: 4444 Rice Street, #302, Lihue, (808) 274-3056. Each offers job search help, career planning, training referrals, HireNet help, and a resource library at no cost.
Who qualifies for WIOA in Hawaii
Hawaii follows the federal Title I rules. The three doors:
- Adult program: 18 or older, able to work legally in the United States, and signed up for Selective Service if that applies to you. Citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau living in Hawaii under the Compacts of Free Association can work legally and can apply.
- Dislocated Worker program: you were laid off or got a layoff notice, you are on unemployment or ran out of it, you were self-employed and lost the business to the economy, or you are a displaced homemaker. A military spouse who lost work because of a permanent move also qualifies. That matters across Oahu's bases.
- Youth program: 14 to 24 with at least one barrier to work. Most of the money goes to out-of-school youth 16 to 24.
Training money in the Adult program goes first to people on public assistance, people with low income, and people who need basic skills. Veterans and eligible spouses go ahead of others within each group. Hawaii's income limits are the federal Lower Living Standard Income Level figures for Hawaii. They run higher than the mainland's. So more households count as low income here than the same income would elsewhere. Say so at intake if you fall into a priority group.
How to apply for WIOA in Hawaii
- Sign up on HireNet Hawaii. Make your account at hirenethawaii.com. Sign-up is required for anyone on unemployment and useful for everyone. It is where the ETPL search lives. Sign-up alone does not enroll you in WIOA.
- Contact your county's American Job Center. The state's own advice is to contact your local AJC, where a case manager helps you apply and gather papers. Bring photo ID, your Social Security card, proof you can work, and income or layoff papers. Veterans should bring the DD-214 and say so at the front desk.
- Finish the eligibility check and agree on a plan. The case manager decides your door, records your priority status, and builds the plan any training has to line up with. The job has to be on your local board's in-demand list.
- Pick a program on the ETPL Approved Programs list in HireNet. Confirm the exact program is listed. Ask whether it is offered on your island or online. An ITA can cover a program elsewhere in the state, but the travel is yours to solve unless extra help is approved.
- Get the Individual Training Account. The ITA pays the school directly, within your local board's limit. Ask about extra help at the same time. Rides and child care are named uses.
Finding approved training on the Hawaii ETPL
Hawaii's Eligible Training Provider List is set by Workforce Development Council policy and published inside HireNet Hawaii as ETPL Approved Programs. The Oahu board also reposts the list on its own site. Schools include the University of Hawaii community colleges on every island, private career schools, and online providers admitted to the list.
On the federal scorecard at TrainingProviderResults.gov, Hawaii reports 219 programs with results. That is what our Navigator draws on. In the fields people ask about most, that includes 48 IT and cybersecurity programs, 41 healthcare programs, 18 billing and coding programs, 14 CDL programs, and 4 EKG programs. Some results worth knowing: Kauai Community College reports 100 percent completion and 100 percent employed after exit across 25 completers of its 30-week medical assisting program. Leeward Community College reports 77 percent completion and 68 percent employed across 211 for its 7-week Class A commercial driving course. 808 CDL Services in Keaau reports 85 percent completion and 90 percent employed across 28. The Hawaii Institute of Healthcare and Training Services in Hilo reports 68 percent completion and 89 percent employed for its 10-week nursing assistant program across 19. Several of the largest rows on Hawaii's list are national online providers such as MedCerts. Their numbers reflect students nationwide, not Hawaii graduates. Small programs have their numbers hidden, so a blank is not a zero. The cost column on Hawaii's rows is unreliable. Ask the school.
How much training money you can get in Hawaii
Hawaii publishes no statewide dollar cap on Individual Training Accounts. Each of the four local boards sets its own limit by dollar amount, by length, or both, and writes it into its local plan. So the answer differs between Oahu, Hawaii Island, Maui County, and Kauai. Ask your case manager two questions at the first appointment: What is the ITA cap for this board? Is training money still available this program year?
Federal rules let an ITA combine with Pell Grants and other aid, as long as the sources are lined up rather than doubled. The University of Hawaii community colleges, where much of the ETPL sits, are Pell eligible. So expect the FAFSA to come up before the ITA is written.
What are Hawaii's WIOA program outcomes?
Hawaii reports the six WIOA indicators to the U.S. Department of Labor every year. The table shows the targets the state agreed to for Program Year 2024 (July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025), what it delivered, and the level it agreed to for PY2025. The numbers come from the Department of Labor's state performance reports.
| Indicator | PY2024 target | PY2024 actual | Result | PY2025 target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adult (900 served, 548 exited) | ||||
| Employment rate, 2nd quarter after exit | 72.5% | 70.4% | Missed | 72.5% |
| Employment rate, 4th quarter after exit | 74.0% | 75.3% | Met | 74.0% |
| Median earnings, 2nd quarter after exit | $7,500 | $7,858 | Met | $7,500 |
| Credential attainment rate | 50.4% | 56.0% | Met | 50.4% |
| Measurable skill gains | 50.4% | 53.7% | Met | 50.4% |
| Dislocated Worker (197 served, 125 exited) | ||||
| Employment rate, 2nd quarter after exit | 72.0% | 71.9% | Missed | 72.0% |
| Employment rate, 4th quarter after exit | 77.5% | 80.9% | Met | 77.5% |
| Median earnings, 2nd quarter after exit | $9,500 | $10,330 | Met | $9,500 |
| Credential attainment rate | 50.5% | 26.7% | Missed | 50.5% |
| Measurable skill gains | 50.5% | 61.0% | Met | 50.5% |
| Youth (273 served, 79 exited) | ||||
| Employment or education rate, 2nd quarter after exit | 67.0% | 67.7% | Met | 67.0% |
| Employment or education rate, 4th quarter after exit | 64.0% | 66.7% | Met | 64.0% |
| Median earnings, 2nd quarter after exit | $5,000 | $6,488 | Met | $5,000 |
| Credential attainment rate | 62.0% | 69.0% | Met | 62.0% |
| Measurable skill gains | 50.5% | 47.5% | Missed | 53.0% |
In PY2024 Hawaii met 11 of 15 targets. The Adult program missed only second-quarter employment, by two points. The Dislocated Worker program missed second-quarter employment by a tenth of a point and credential attainment by a wide margin, 26.7 percent against 50.5 percent. The Youth program missed only skill gains, by three points. The full story is on how Hawaii measures workforce program success.
Workforce Pell in Hawaii
Hawaii is early. A bill to set up the state's role, SB 3282, died on May 8, 2026. A DLIR and Workforce Development Council working group is carrying the work instead. The council's September 10, 2026 agenda listed Workforce Pell only as a status update in the director's report, flagged as a fourth-quarter focus, with no vote on an approval framework. As of this writing there is no application process, no list of eligible jobs, and no Hawaii program that can take Workforce Pell students. Reference: Workforce Development Council.
Workforce Pell extends Pell Grant money to programs of 150 to 599 clock hours over at least 8 and fewer than 15 weeks. You apply through the FAFSA. The community colleges' short healthcare and CDL certificates are the likely first candidates once the state builds its process. For where every other state stands, see the state-by-state Workforce Pell tracker.