Elevate Delaware Program Passes

The House and Senate back in June passed House Bill 166, which would establish a Delaware Labor Department pilot skills training program called Elevate Delaware. Elevate Delaware will provide tuition, up to $10,000, to Delaware residents who have obtained a high school diploma, Diploma of Alternate Achievement Standards, or a Delaware secondary credential such as a GED, and have enrolled in an approved non-degree credit certificate program.

There is currently no list of what all would qualify as an “approved” program, but these could include things like lab tech or medical billing. The Workforce Development Board will create a list of non-degree credit certificate programs approved for the Elevate Delaware program.

This Act also allows the Department of Labor to provide participants in the Elevate Delaware Program payments to cover basic living expenses while attending the training program and for a 90-day job search period after completion of the training program.

“The 500 thousand dollars is allocated to the idea that we’d like to provide skills to unskilled individuals to move them towards a living wage,” State Labor Secretary Karryl Hubbard explained. “At the level of 500 thousand dollars, it would be a pilot program.”

House Bill 166 Sponsors	Yes Votes	No Votes
Osienski, Lambert, Lynn, Mitchell, Morrison, K.Williams	House Passes 40-0-1. Baumbach Bennett Bentz Bolden Brady Bush Carson Chukwuocha Cooke Dorsey-Walker Griffith Heffernan K.Johnson K.Williams Kowalko Lambert Longhurst Lynn Matthews Minor-Brown Mitchell Morrison Osienski S.Moore Schwartzkopf Wilson-Anton Briggs King Collins D.Short Dukes Gray Hensley M.Smith Morris Ramone Shupe Smyk Spiegelman Vanderwende Yearick	Postles (absent)
Walsh, Brown, Ennis, Lockman, Mantzavinos, S.McBride, Sokola, Townsend	Senate Passes 21-0. Brown Ennis Gay Hansen Lockman Mantzavinos Paradee Pinkney Poore S.McBride Sokola Sturgeon Townsend Walsh Bonini Hocker Lawson Lopez Pettyjohn Richardson Wilson
Current Status —	Sent to the Governor.