Workforce Investment Act Youth Program is for you.

Get connected with people and resources to help you become more

independent and active in the workforce.

What is the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Youth Program?

• WIA is an education and employment program.
• WIA is for alternative high school students that are committed to getting a job in a career that pays well and has a demand for employees.

What do you get?

• Private meetings with the Career Counselor from the program to talk about what you would like the program to help you with and to learn what your responsibilities are.
• One-on-one assistance to help you figure out what careers will fit with your interests and abilities and to help you take steps toward that career.
• You may be eligible to get financial help meeting your education goals
• Employers say that getting a job and keeping it usually depends on being able to read and do math at least at a 9^th grade level.  If your reading and math aren’t that good yet, you need to commit to improving them and will have help doing that.
• Having good job search skills is important.  If you need some help with that, it will be available.   Need a resume?  You can get help for that, too.
• Once you decide on a career choice, you will learn what training, if any, is necessary to get an entry level job in that career.  You will get help figuring out what school to attend, how to enroll, how to pay for it.

If you decide to join the program, you

• Need to fill out an application for the program.
• Must show that you are eligible.  (You must come from a low income family and have one other important thing going on in your life like being a parent, a foster child, homeless, having low reading or math grades, or having had involvement in the criminal justice system.  You will learn more about eligibility when you apply.)
• Must be accepted into the program.  One of the biggest determiners of being accepted is whether or not you are committed to your own successful future!
• You need to stay in school until you finish your high school diploma or its equivalent.

How do you get involved

• You must be a high school student in an alternative high school setting in Dane County.  (If you aren’t in Dane County, or you are no longer in high school, you may still be able to enroll in WIA.  Go to wdbsw.org or call 249-9001 to find out who to contact.)
• Call 224-7165 and tell them you want to learn more about the WIA program; or talk to a teacher, guidance counselor or principal at your school.  There may already be a program at your school.