05/28/2020

Husted Announces Program Changes to Support COVID-19 Economic Recovery

The next application period begins June 1

Today, Lt. Governor Jon Husted announced that 150 Ohio companies have been approved for TechCred funding, which will help them upskill their current and incoming workforce to meet the needs of the increasingly tech-focused economy, particularly amid the COVID-19 health crisis.

The next application period of the TechCred program opens June 1 and runs through June 30, allowing for another opportunity for companies to train current and/or incoming employees.

In order to support the changing needs of Ohio businesses and workers during the economic recovery  following COVID-19, the following changes have been made to the TechCred program:

To make TechCred more flexible for upskilling new hires, employers are no longer required to list employee names when applying for TechCred. Instead, they will identify the number of current or prospective employees they will upskill.

• To account for possible staffing changes, employers who were awarded in the October 2019, January 2020 and March 2020 rounds of TechCred may now substitute employees listed in their original application.
• Employers awarded in October 2019 and January 2020, who had credential programs interrupted by the crisis, may request to extend their 18-month award eligibility timeline.
• Employees can now earn multiple credentials during each application period.

The last round of TechCred applications closed at the end of March 2020. Today, 150 additional Ohio employers were approved, resulting in up to 1,045 credentials to upskill Ohio workers. With these approvals, a total of 500 Ohio employers have been approved for reimbursement, which will result in the earning of up to 4,232 technology-focused credentials by Ohio employees.

Many of the TechCred pre-approved credentials can be completed 100 percent virtually! Examples of these credentials and training providers can be found at TechCred.Ohio.gov.