Kentucky will pay half your training bill. Almost nobody asks.

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Last year, Kentucky approved over $9.5 million to help employers train their people.

Want to know how many locations claimed it?

115.

In the whole state.

Every other Kentucky employer paid for training out of pocket. Or worse, skipped it and kept losing techs to the shop down the road.

The program nobody talks about

It’s called the Bluegrass State Skills Corporation. BSSC for short.

It pays Kentucky employers back for training their workers. Two ways:

Grant-in-Aid (GIA)
Cash back. You train, you document it, the state reimburses you.

Skills Training Investment Credit (STIC)
A Kentucky income tax credit to offset your training costs.

Either way, the state covers half.

How much you can get

Each year (July to June), you get the lowest of these three:

• 50% of your approved training costs

• $2,000 per employee you train

• $75,000 total

Here’s the math. You spend $120,000 training 30 techs. Half is $60,000. 30 people × $2,000 is also $60,000.

That’s $60,000 back. Every year you do it.

If you’re an employer training W2 new hires anyway, you’re writing that check already. You just aren’t getting half of it back.

Your first 5 steps

1. Write down what you already spend on training. Courses, outside trainers, certification fees. Most owners have never added it up.

2. Build a training plan. Who gets trained, on what, by whom, and when. The state requires one with every application.

3. Pick GIA or the tax credit. Need cash flow? GIA. Have a big Kentucky tax bill? The credit might fit better.

4. Apply before training starts. This is the big one. If training begins before you apply, it doesn’t count.

5. Track everything. Hours, attendance, invoices. You only get paid once training is done and documented.

Fair warning

This is where most employers fall off.

• It’s competitive. The board scores applications and votes at scheduled meetings. A sloppy plan gets passed over.

• One application per year. If you get it wrong, you wait until next fiscal year.

• It’s a reimbursement. You pay for the training first and get half back later.

• The tax credit pot is capped statewide at $2.5 million a year. When it’s gone, it’s gone.

• You can’t make employees pay you back for training and still claim the credit.

Simple idea. Lots of ways to leave it on the table.

If you run a school

Kentucky employers need someone to deliver the training they’re getting reimbursed for. That should be you.

Walk in with this line:

“The state will pay half of your training bill. I’ll build the plan and deliver the training.”

Not in Kentucky? Use this script

Most states have some kind of state-funded training reimbursement or tax credit for employers. Call your state’s economic development office and say:

“Hi, my name is ___. I own ___ with ___ employees in . We spend about $ a year training our people.

1. Does our state reimburse employers for training costs, or offer a training tax credit?

2. What percentage do you cover, and is there a cap per employee or per year?

3. Do we have to apply before training starts?

4. Is it first-come, first-served or competitive?

5. Who can walk me through the application?”

If they say yes, you’ve been paying full price for something the state would split with you.

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