Current through Register Vol. 18, September 20, 2024
(1) The department
shall consider the curriculum, facilities, staff and other essentials necessary
to insure that a training program has the capacity to achieve the training
program's objectives, including appropriate standards and practices regarding
satisfactory attendance and performance of trainees. State-approved training
programs may include, but are not limited to, the following:
(a) job search workshops;
(b) vocational or technical training,
including basic education required as a prerequisite to such
training;
(c) vocationally directed
academic courses;
(d) job training
programs authorized under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity
Act;
(e) training programs designed
to upgrade claimant's skills to meet technological or other advances in the
claimant's occupational field; or
(f) training programs designed to improve
claimant's employability by enhancing claimant's aptitudes or skills for a
demand occupation.
(2)
The department shall consider the following criteria when determining
claimant's qualification for training benefits:
(a) claimant's basic work skills, the lack of
which may be demonstrated by a history of repeated periods of
unemployment;
(b) claimant's
history of recent employment that paid federal or state minimum wage;
(c) claimant's lack of formal vocational
training or lack of a marketable degree from an educational institution of
higher learning;
(d) the diminished
value of claimant's skills in the labor market due to changes in technology or
major reductions in the industry in which claimant was employed;
(e) claimant's inability to work in the
claimant's customary occupation due to documented, long-term physical or mental
disabilities;
(f) claimant's
reasonable expectation that training will result in higher wages and more
secure employment; and
(g)
claimant's reasonable expectation for successful completion of the training
program, as demonstrated by:
(i) claimant's
interest in and aptitude for the course of study to be pursued; and
(ii) claimant's willingness to commit
sufficient time to ensure completion of the training.
(3) For up to 30 days prior to the
start of a state-approved training program, the department shall consider a
claimant to be in training after the department approves the training
application, even though training may not have started.
(4) Upon the department's written approval of
a claimant for a stateapproved training program, the department shall notify
the claimant of the availability of additional training benefits.
(5) A claimant in good standing in a
state-approved training program may apply to the department for additional
training benefits.
(a) Additional training
benefits may be paid during break periods of less than 30 days, and weeks
including at least one day of training.
(b) Additional training benefits may not
exceed an amount equal to 26 times the claimant's regular weekly benefit
amount.
(c) Additional training
benefits terminate when the following occurs:
(i) the claimant completes the training
program;
(ii) the claimant exhausts
the maximum additional training benefits payable;
(iii) the claimant leaves or is expelled from
the training program; or
(iv) the
claimant becomes eligible to file a new, regular unemployment benefits claim at
the end of the benefit year.
(6) The department shall not charge an
experience-rated employer's account, as defined by
39-51-1214, MCA, for benefits paid
to a claimant who is qualified to receive benefits under this rule.
AUTH:
39-51-301,
39-51-302, MCA; IMP:
39-51-2116,
39-51-2307,
39-51-2401,
MCA
