Even when he did get full-time employment for a brief stint he said his worker didn't tell him about the full-time job benefit ($500). I really doubt she would help him work his way through the maze of bureaucracy that is OW to get funding. If he has an idea of where and how to start however he might be better off.

See this is key - I have been on OW for a brief period years ago, and one of my friends is currently on it. A lot of this is luck of the draw in terms of who you get as your case worker. I luckily got someone who is simply nothing short of incredible at her job. She really advocated on my behalf.

I don't have an exact name for the funding, but during a meeting we had a few weeks back she asked if there was anything I could think of that could maybe help me get a job, and mentioned that there was up to 10,000 available for it. Now this is where it gets tricky - your case worker can approve up to 500 dollars themselves on the spot. More than 500, and up to 5,000 they need to bring it to their supervisor. More than 5,000 it still goes to the supervisor, but after that it goes to the office manager.

If you want to get a lot of funding, you really need to make a really good proposal. Your friends caseworker should go over the particular details, but I know that sometimes they simply don't give a fuck, so I'll do the best I can. What I did (and subsequnetly blew away everyone in the office) is:

• gathered the labour market statistics for the job you could expect to get after completing the training
• average wages
• a handful of jobs currently available for the position you would be training for, taken from places like the Job Bank, Monster, et al.
• how likely the training is to lead to meaningful employment (really helped that the boot camp I'm attending has a 100% placement rate. Not even kidding)
• what sets apart the training program you chose, over others like it
• proof of acceptance to the program, if applicable
• an updated copy of your resume
• stats, lot's and lot's of stats. Every positive statistic you can find to support your claim the better

I used all that and typed up a proposal. I know someone who is a copywrite editor, and I had them proof read it which not going to lie, helped a lot. The key is, stats up the wazoo, and a clean, well written proposal. If your friends caseworker is one of the lazy variety, and they fear that the worker won't advocate for them - tell your friend to speak to the supervisor, and bring it up. It should be noted though, that this will only pay for training costs, else I wouldn't even have made this post :P So be sure you are prepared and able to obtain anything you might need for the training that is extra from the program costs.

Hope that helps! I know all to well how hard it can be to navigate the OW maze, especially when your worker seems to be working against you. Tell your friend good luck, and if down the road there are any more questions, feel free to send me a pm :)