Pay your training costs with grants

Jan. 1, 2020
Millions of dollars of grants are awarded for education and training annually, including grants to help small companies train employees and develop work skills.
Shoemaker ABRN auto body repair collision repair training grants

Millions of dollars of grants are awarded for education and training annually. There are grants available to help small companies train employees and develop work skills; however, applying for a grant is a lengthy and detailed process.

A good point to remember is grants aren't benefits or entitlements; they are an award of financial assistance from a federal agency to carry out a public purpose. While federal grants aren't federal assistance or loans to individuals, there are ways for individuals to benefit from them. Generally, grant funding will be allocated to state or local work-force boards. The work-force boards, normally run by local appointees and volunteers, help coordinate federal, state and local programs. Those boards will decide what industries to support. The challenge is to have the collision repair industry recognized as a field necessitating grants to sustain growth.

Research will be required to locate your particular state and local work-force groups. Their names and agency affiliation vary from state to state and even from locality to locality. Contacting a technical or community college in your area is one of the easiest ways to find the agency serving your locality. Associating yourself with an educational institution will improve your chances of obtaining an education grant. They can assist you with writing the grant application, a large undertaking because it's a lengthy process. Creating a nonprofit organization or strategic partnership are other ways to secure grants.

Nonprofit organizations can be created by establishing an alliance with a body shop association or other group that has strong connections with the collision repair population. By establishing an alliance, you can show in your grant application a larger number of individuals that would be served by the grant. Through the nonprofit organization, resources can be pooled, and impact of need can be established. While cost sharing isn't required as a condition for a grant, leveraged resources are strongly encouraged and can increase the chances of grant approval.

Strategic partnerships work similarly to nonprofit organizations with the exception that they must align themselves with the state agency overseeing education grants. Additionally, they must be partnered with a labor organization or union.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)has several categories that would fit in the collision repair industry. Qualification within those categories depends on your locality. Searching through the DOL's website shows various grants that fall under Disability Employment Initiative, Community-Based Job Training Grants, Trade Adjustment Assistance, and Young Adult Offenders and High School Dropouts in High-Poverty, High-Crime Communities. While some of these categories might seem out of the norm, they all have categories that would fit the specific need of training individuals to work in the collision industry.

Most markets are struggling to find young technicians to join the collision industry. The average age of a collision repair technician increases every year. With highly advertised layoffs and plants of multiple industries closing, there are an increasing number of skilled individuals available for retraining. Several of the grants have clauses that make the grant more favorable when they specify retraining laid off or unemployed workers.

There are three distinct and separate parts to the application process: the cost proposal, the technical proposal and attachments to the technical proposal. All three parts must be included.

Additionally, you'll need to address the following five areas within the criterion: statement of need, project management and organizational capacity, strategic partnerships and work plan, outcomes and deliverables, and leveraged resources.

The statement of need must focus on project needs to train collision repair technicians in an industry that has a high average age with low career entry numbers. It must demonstrate how the industry will be impacted if individuals aren't trained to replace an aging work force.

The project management and organizational capacity criterion must display its capacity and capacity of any partners. It must demonstrate an infrastructure exists and the members are skilled in grant management.

Strategic partnerships and work plan must provide a clear explanation of the planned strategy, how it will incorporate partners, how the collision industry will be improved, and how the plan will be implemented. Specifically, the work plan must include a time line of planned activities and milestones.

Leveraged resources should be completed to ensure your grant application gets the maximum number of points.

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