Income Support, Training and  Health Benefits Regulation, Section 44, 57 and 97(1)(h)
Training Provider Regulation, Section 5(1)(b)
Training Provider Regulation, Section 5(1)(i)

INTENT

To provide direction to ensure consistent calculation of the number of months for which training benefits are provided.

POLICY

Full-time training paid for by the Government of Alberta, on behalf of an individual, cannot exceed the maximum number of months as defined in the regulation.

The number of months of training benefits necessary to achieve the agreed upon employment goal or to acquire the academic pre-requisites for the further training identified, cannot exceed the maximum duration. The duration policy defines the maximum and provides clarity to the exceptions that may be made to the maximum.
The business rules to calculate training benefit months are as follows:

All full-time training for which the Government of Alberta provides financial assistance toward the cost of instruction (tuition and book costs and/or training procured via a fee for service contract) under Alberta Works will count towards the number of months of training benefits.

The start date of a training session will be used to calculate the training benefit months.

• If the training session commences before the sixteenth day of the month, the month will be counted as a month of training benefits. 
• If the training session commences on or after the sixteenth day of the month, the part month will not be counted as a month of training benefits. Counting will start the following month.

Each subsequent month, following the month of commencement, will count as a month of training benefits. The final month in which training occurs is counted as a month regardless of the last day attended.

To count training benefits provided for participants who conclude their training prior to the training session end date, the following rules will apply:

• In the event that a participant completes training earlier than the training session end date, the later date will be used to compute the months of training benefits. (Example - A program is approved for 8 months however a participant completes the session early the training session will be counted as 8 months of training benefits.)
• In the event that a participant withdraws or is terminated from a training session count the number of months to the date of withdrawal.

An individual must participate in one day of full-time training to be counted as a month of training benefits. All full-time training sessions where an individual did not start are not counted.

Individuals who complete or exit a Service Plan may no longer be eligible to receive support. Additional information may be found in the Acceptable Progress policy and the Never Attended and Withdrawal policy to determine if a participant may be permitted to continue training.

Training Included

Full-time participation in the following program elements will be included in the calculation of training benefits provided:

Excluded

• Skills Investment Bursary Recipients 
• Temporary Employment program participants – AJC, (Mobius Program codes 801)
• Job Placement Services (Mobius Program code 905)
• Workplace Training participants (Mobius Program code 910)
• Feepayers (no provincial contribution towards training benefits)