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Skills for Small Business — Program Overview

Skills for Small Business finances tuition and fees for community and technical college courses for current and newly hired employees of small businesses (fewer than 100 employees) in Texas, successfully merging small business needs and local training opportunities into a winning formula for putting people to work in Texas.

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The Texas Workforce Commission’s (TWC) Skills for Small Business program supports businesses with fewer than 100 employees, emphasizes training for new workers, and helps upgrade the skills of incumbent workers. Through this program, up to $2 million from the Skills Development Fund is dedicated to the backbone of Texas' business community—our small employers.

Small businesses can apply to TWC for training offered by their local community or technical college or the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX). TWC processes the applications and works with the college to fund the specific courses selected by businesses for their employees.

About the Program

The program emphasizes training newly hired employees—those who have been hired by the company up to three months prior to the date that TWC receives an application.
The program pays up to $1,450 for each new employee being trained and $725 for existing employees per 12-month period.
Funding for training is for full-time employees.
All training must be provided by a public community or technical college, or TEEX. No third-party vendor training is allowed.
Training must be selected from active course catalogs/schedules—credit, continuing education, online or other available unpublished courses.
Training may also be emphasized for occupations targeted by Workforce Development Boards.
Employers must pay the prevailing wages in the local labor market for the trainees funded under the grant.

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