Employer Training Investment Program (ETIP)
The following guidelines for the ETIP Program currently apply:
- Eligibility: Must be an Illinois company in a funding-eligible category
- Application Deadline: Ongoing
- Funding: Pays a percentage of all training costs (including books, instruction, and eligible materials) for eligible training participants
- Duration: Fiscal Year 7/1-6/30
Additional guidelines for grant funding available from BIS through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for this fiscal year are:
- A current, complete, and signed Company Profile must be on file with DCEO in order for your company to be eligible for grant funding. DCEO will not accept any profile with missing or inaccurate information.
- Please note that any temporary, contractual, or non-Illinois-based employees are ineligible for grant funding. Any such employee may still participate in training for no additional hourly fee as long as there are at least two additional eligible participant employees in training. However, the entire materials fee, if any, will be charged to your company for any ineligible training participant. Additionally, grant funding can only be applied to training materials for those eligible employees signed in for the training session, not for any extra materials. DCEO will check the employment status of each individual in training. If funding is disallowed for any individual due to employment status, we must invoice the company the disallowed portion.
- Minimum class size for every training session is two funding-eligible participants. Any onsite training session with fewer than two funding-eligible participants is not eligible for grant funding and therefore will be invoiced at full cost. If you think you will consistently have less than two participants in onsite training, please contact us to discuss funding details. For public courses and workshops, this minimum of two participants can be from different companies.
- The following data are required by DCEO for every training participant for the ETIP funds: Name, Job Classification, Hourly Wage for Job Classification, New or Existing Status. BIS will provide your company with a form to complete in order to submit this data. The company must provide BIS with this information at the start of training.
- Only companies are eligible to participate in grant funding, not private individuals. Invoices must be sent to the company, not to the individual training participant's private address.
- The ETIP grant will consider basic and/or remedial skills eligible for reimbursement only when it is a prerequisite for other vocational or technical skills training. Documentation is required from the company, on its letterhead, describing the skill path to be undertaken by each employee that is furnished remedial and/or basic skills training.
- All companies must participate in the BIS Evaluation Survey.
- The company is required to report employment status of all trainees at 90 and 180 days following the last day of training for each individual employee.
- Only participants that successfully complete the training (either company onsite or public course/workshop) will be eligible for grant funding. "Successful completion" is defined as an attendance rate of 70% in required sessions.
- There is a required company funding match for the training costs. This match cannot be funded by any grant dollars from any grant funding source.
Further information regarding grant funding guidelines, including additional reports required, can be found here.
DCEO will not approve grant funding for any company that does not meet the above requirements. Failure to provide this information to BIS in a timely manner may result in the company being ineligible for the reduction of any costs associated with the training program. If funding is not approved or disallowed for any reason, including timely submission of any required paperwork, the company will be responsible for 100% of the training fees and BIS will invoice your company for any remaining amount.
Grant funding is not guaranteed. Please contact BIS for additional information as to the status of grant funding for this fiscal year. Grant funding guidelines and eligibility requirements subject to change without notice.
For more information on programs for Illinois businesses, see the State of Illinois Business Portal.