Welfare-to-Work Training Online Program (TOP)

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

The County of San Bernardino transitional assistance Department (TAD) piloted an in-home distance learning program as an innovative strategy aimed at linking California Work Opportunity and responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) recipients to the skills needed to obtain employment, maintain work participation, and move toward financial independence. Considering the economic and geographic characteristics of the county’s CalWORKs population, the county looked to technology to provide a gap in services to help overcome logistical barriers and develop new opportunities for disadvantaged populations in the highly competitive labor market. The objective of the Training Online program (TOP) was to provide a platform for helping CalWORKs recipients develop skills and training to obtain unsubsidized employment and mitigate the transportation and child care issues facing TAD’s customers. Over the past two years, TAD has offered TOP to 320 CalWORKs recipients who could not otherwise attend a traditional classroom-based educational and job skills training program. TOP is self-paced and provides access to enrolled recipients seven (7) days a week, 24 hours a day. By reducing necessary travel and barriers for training, TOP supports both the county’s "Work First" and “green” initiatives.