Recently, KRA Corporation reported on California’s Expanded Subsidized Employment (ESE) program that transitions public-assistance recipients from “Welfare-To-Work”, one of the Subsidized Employment Programs (SEP) that KRA offers across the country, including Virginia’s FEP (Full Employment Program) and Connecticut’s Step Up (Subsidized Training and Employment Program), which “is putting people back to work!”
Step Up, which provides wage subsidies to employers that hire and train unemployed jobseekers, is administered by the Connecticut DOL and the State’s five Workforce Investment Boards, one of which is Capital Workforce Partners, for whom KRA operates the Hartford American Job Center (AJC) and Jobs First Employment Services (JFES) program, and its SEP component.
Jerry Santostefano, JFES Expeditor, reports, “During high-unemployment economic cycles, people find it much more challenging to find jobs through the regular channels, so for those who qualify, SEP provides a viable pathway to employment.
SEP offers our employers incentives to hire and train our jobseekers, while receiving a new-hire subsidy that decreases in wage-support from 100% to 25% over 6 months. If neither party is released from the SEP agreement prior to completion, the employer is fully expected to hire the employee permanently. SEP is a great example of a win-win Workforce Development program for all concerned.”
