Free tool · No signup
Answer four questions. You get your eligibility read, the real intake path in your state, the papers to bring, a step-by-step timeline for the money, and the questions to ask at your first visit. It works for certificate programs and registered apprenticeships.
WIOA (the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act) pays for free job training in every state through American Job Centers. The money is a grant. You never pay it back. The hard part is not just being eligible. It is knowing which door fits you, where intake really happens in your state, what to bring, and how long the money takes. This tool answers those from the same research behind our 50-state directory and state comparison. Its results include the real programs on your state's training list, with the completion rates, job rates, and pay each state reports in the federal ETA-9171 file.
A step-by-step plan for your state, built from the answers you gave here: the intake steps in the order your state runs them; the papers to bring, as a checklist you can print; what to say when you book, and six questions to ask your counselor; how much your state will pay; a week-by-week timeline; and what to do if things stall. Every fact links to its source, so you can check it.
Capstone Workforce sends it to your email in about 2 minutes. I'm Shawn Gregoire, the founder and an Air Force veteran. Reply to that email and it comes to me.
Yes. If the guide does not get you through intake, reply to the email and I refund it. You pay through Stripe, and we never see your card number.
Yes. The tool is free with no signup, and the results screen is not gated. WIOA training funds themselves are grants that are never repaid.
Three doors: the Adult program (18 or older, priority to public-assistance recipients, other low-income individuals, and the basic-skills deficient), the Dislocated Worker program (laid off or on unemployment), and the Youth program (16-24 and out of school). Veterans and eligible spouses have priority everywhere.
Yes. Sponsors qualify automatically for state Eligible Training Provider Lists, Individual Training Accounts can pay the classroom portion, and boards can reimburse employers 50 to 75 percent of apprentice wages during on-the-job training.
Two to eight weeks from first appointment to a funded seat is the common range: registration, eligibility intake, assessment, the written employment plan, program selection from the ETPL, then the Individual Training Account.
Photo ID, Social Security card, work authorization if not a citizen, Selective Service confirmation for men born in 1960 or later, and income or layoff documentation. Veterans bring the DD-214; youth applicants bring school records.
For workforce boards and colleges: these same questions eat staff hours at intake every day. See what NPower ran with Capstone Workforce, with no added staff.