New Employee Training Options

Are you a business owner looking to expand and hire new employees? Do you need help training these new hires? Kalamazoo Valley Community College, in partnership with the state of Michigan, can help.

Kalamazoo Valley’s Corporate Training department can provide a variety of customized training programs and the state’s Michigan New Jobs Training Program (MNJTP) can help offset those training costs. This unique economic incentive allows for businesses to partner with Kalamazoo Valley to produce highly-trained employees at no cost to the employer.

Funds to cover the costs of the training are attained through a diversion of withholding taxes generated by the wages earned by new employees. Training of new employees, explained Kate Miller, corporate training manager at Kalamazoo Valley, are reimbursed by dollars that would otherwise have been paid to the state for withholding taxes. The MNJTP can be used to reimburse any direct training or education expenses, including:

• Basic adult education
• Job-related instruction
• Skills assessment
• Training equipment, materials and supplies
• Customized training services
• Testing and evaluation of employees
• Reimbursement for travel costs for employees or company trainers
• College tuition, books and fees
• Services of a private trainer

“The Michigan New Jobs Training Program allows qualifying employers to strategically build their on-boarding and training programs,” Miller said. Diverted dollars can be used to reimburse for credit or non-credit training or education, technical or soft skills, and can even be used to fund equipment necessary for training these new workers. We are grateful to the state of Michigan and the Michigan Community College Association for this additional resource to strengthen our region."

Area employers can enter into an agreement with Kalamazoo Valley to provide training if they are creating new jobs in the state that:

• Are full time, in a new, existing or expanding business
• Are not jobs of recalled workers, replacement jobs, temporary or any other job that existed within the one year period preceding the date of the agreement
• Are new jobs that pay at least 175% of the minimum wage, or $16.19 per hour
• Are new jobs that result in a net increase in employment in Michigan

For more information, contact Kate Miller at kmilller1@kvcc.edu or call 269.353.1257.