How to Apply for WIOA in Minnesota (2026): CareerForce Intake, the State Dislocated Worker Program, and the ETPL

Minnesota runs WIOA through the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). Services come through CareerForce locations. Those are Minnesota's American Job Centers. One thing makes Minnesota different from most states. It runs two dislocated worker programs side by side: the federal WIOA program and a state Dislocated Worker program with wider rules, paid for by a state fund. If you were laid off, you may qualify for one when you do not qualify for the other. The counselor sorts that out for you. Reference: DEED Office of Dislocated Worker and Federal Adult Programs.

For you, it works like this. Contact a CareerForce location or a dislocated worker provider. Do the eligibility check with a Workforce Development Specialist. Agree on a plan. Pick a program on the Minnesota ETPL through the Career and Education Explorer. Then you get an Individual Training Account that pays the school.

• DEED's Office of Dislocated Worker and Federal Adult Programs runs WIOA Title I. It writes the rules local providers follow, keeps the Eligible Training Provider List, and reports results to the U.S. Department of Labor.
• 16 local workforce areas cover the state. Each has a local board that sets its own training limits and hires its own providers. In the metro, Hennepin and Carver counties share a board. Dakota and Scott share another. Minneapolis, Ramsey, Anoka, and Washington each run their own.
• CareerForce locations are where you go. DEED staff and county or nonprofit partners work there, depending on the site. The dislocated worker program is often run by a contracted provider (a county workforce office or a nonprofit, like those in the Southeast Minnesota group). So the person who enrolls you may not be a state employee.
• The Minnesota ETPL lives in DEED's Career and Education Explorer. If a program you expect to see is missing, email the ETPL administrator at ETPL.deed@state.mn.us.

Minnesota follows the federal Title I rules, with the state program on top for dislocated workers. The doors:

• Adult program: 18 or older, a U.S. citizen or legally able to work, and signed up for Selective Service if that applies to you.
• Dislocated Worker program (WIOA and state): you lost a job through no fault of your own (you did not quit and were not fired), or you got a layoff notice. Self-employed people who lost income to the economy qualify. Minnesota's state program adds veterans leaving active duty and some people leaving Guard or Reserve active duty. Anyone unemployed 27 weeks or more in a row meets the federal rule no matter how the job ended.
• 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.

DEED's written priority order for Adult services is specific and worth knowing. First: veterans and eligible spouses who are also low income, on public assistance, or in need of basic skills. Second: non-veterans in those same groups. Third: veterans and spouses outside them. Fourth: groups named by the Governor or the local board. Fifth: everyone else. Low income means SNAP, TANF, or SSI in the past six months, or family income at or below 70 percent of the Lower Living Standard Income Level. Needing basic skills includes anyone without a diploma or GED who is not in school, anyone in adult education, anyone who scores at or below eighth-grade level on a test, and English language learners.

1. Contact a CareerForce location or a dislocated worker provider. DEED's advice for laid-off workers is plain: contact staff at a CareerForce location near you, or a dislocated worker provider near you, to find out if you qualify. The CareerForce dislocated worker page lists the providers. The statewide line is 651-259-7500. Signing up on the CareerForce job site (the successor to MinnesotaWorks.net) is useful but does not enroll you in anything.
2. Do the eligibility check. DEED policy requires eligibility to be decided before you get any one-on-one career, training, or support service. A Workforce Development Specialist reviews your papers and decides which program you fit. Minnesota publishes an accepted-documents list. Bring photo ID, your Social Security card, proof you can work, and the layoff letter or unemployment decision if you are applying as a dislocated worker. Veterans should bring the DD-214 and say so at the front desk.
3. Agree on a plan. Career planning and counseling come first. Training is approved only when the counselor decides you need it to reach a job that pays enough to live on. Only counselor-approved training is paid.
4. Pick a program on the Minnesota ETPL. Search the Career and Education Explorer, described below. Confirm the exact program (not just the college) is WIOA certified.
5. Get the Individual Training Account. The ITA is a payment agreement between the program and the school. Minnesota's dislocated worker program also offers some support money and, through CLIMB, help for people who want to start a business instead of retraining.

Minnesota's Eligible Training Provider List lives inside the Career and Education Explorer, DEED's public tool at apps.deed.state.mn.us/cee, reachable from mn.gov/deed/careers. You can search, view, and compare programs. The tool shows which ones are WIOA certified. Schools add and edit their own listings through a separate portal, so the list changes through the year.

Minnesota reports one of the largest lists in the country to the federal scorecard: 3,777 programs with results at TrainingProviderResults.gov, behind only Ohio and Washington. In the fields people ask about most, that includes 325 IT and cybersecurity programs, 137 healthcare programs, 99 welding and manufacturing programs, 48 billing and coding programs, and 26 CDL programs. Some results worth knowing: Central Lakes College's nursing program in Brainerd reports 97 percent completion and 94 percent employed after exit across 334 completers. Alexandria Technical and Community College's medical coding program reports 84 percent completion and 86 percent employed across 72. Anoka Technical College's network management and security program reports 73 percent completion and 86 percent employed across 36. Small programs have their numbers hidden, so a blank is not a zero.

The list leans on the Minnesota State colleges. So most fundable programs are credit certificates and diplomas at a community or technical college, not short private courses. Plan on a 30-week or 60-week program in many fields.

Minnesota sets no statewide dollar cap on Individual Training Accounts. DEED's policy leaves that to the 16 local boards. A board may limit ITAs by dollar amount, by length, or both, and must describe the limit in its local plan. So the number depends on where you live. The sure way to learn it is to ask your Workforce Development Specialist two questions at the first appointment: What is the ITA cap in this area? Is there training money left this program year?

DEED policy says plainly that you may choose a program that costs more than the ITA cap if other money covers the difference. It names Pell Grants and scholarships as examples. Federal rules require those other sources to be lined up with the ITA, not doubled, so expect the FAFSA to come up. The state dislocated worker program follows the same local-limit logic but draws on a separate state fund. That is one reason a laid-off worker in Minnesota often has more room than the federal program alone would give.

Minnesota 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.

In PY2024 Minnesota met 9 of 15 targets. The Adult program missed both employment targets, one by three points and one by a fifth of a point. The Dislocated Worker program missed only fourth-quarter employment. The Youth program missed both employment targets and credential attainment. Median earnings beat the target by $1,000 to $2,000 in every program. The full story is on how Minnesota measures workforce program success.

Minnesota's Office of Higher Education runs the state side of Workforce Pell. OHE opened a provider window that closed at noon on August 15, 2026, against a list of 22 priority jobs. The next steps are a completeness check, review by a Workforce Pell Review Committee, a recommendation to the governor's office, and then submission to the U.S. Department of Education. No approvals had been announced as of this writing. So no Minnesota program can take Workforce Pell students yet. Reference: ohe.mn.gov/mnworkforcepell.

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. When Minnesota programs clear federal approval, they will be short programs of the kind the ETPL has few of today. So it is worth checking the OHE page again before you commit to a longer diploma. For where every other state stands, see the state-by-state Workforce Pell tracker.

Both programs serve Minnesotans 18 and older who lost a job through no fault of their own. Both pay for counselor-approved training from the same ETPL. The differences: the state program has the wider rules described above. It is paid from a state fund, not a federal grant. And it is what usually gets switched on for a large layoff, when DEED's Rapid Response team meets with affected workers on site before their last day.

You do not choose between them. The provider decides which one you fit and enrolls you. Some people are in both. What you can do is act early. If you have a layoff notice in hand, contact a provider before your last day. Eligibility and planning can be done while you still have the job, and training can start the week after.