Arkansas Administrative Code › Agency 168 - Arkansas Economic Development Commission › Rule 168.00.07-001 - Amendments to the Arkansas Existing Workforce Training Act

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 6, June, 2024
I.
Introduction
The primary purpose of the Existing Workforce Training Program
			 (EWTP) is to provide financial assistance in the form of a direct grant or an
			 income tax credit to Arkansas business and industry for the delivery of
			 customized, industry specific training to upgrade the knowledge and skills of
			 the existing workforce or a potential new workforce and to increase the
			 capacity of state-supported educational institutions to supply the on-going
			 training needs of Arkansas companies. See Arkansas Code Annotated §
			 6-50-701 et seq.
Eligible recipients of EWTP assistance are defined in the rules
			 and regulations.
For additional information contact:
Exiting Business Resource Team
Arkansas Economic Development Commission
One State Capitol Mall
Little Rock, AR 72201
(501) 682-7323
II.
Definitions
1. "Basic skills training" means training in
		  those math, reading, English, communication (listening, oral, and written), and
		  computer literacy skills that a person can reasonably be expected to have
		  attained by the end of the twelfth grade, except in the instance of potential
		  new workforce training.
2.
		  "Classroom training" means instructor-led training that is provided outside of
		  the process of the production of goods or the delivery of a service. It means
		  the simultaneous delivery of training by a trainer to a group of trainees.
		  Classroom training is usually delivered in an instructional setting removed
		  from the plant floor or laboratory and does not include training delivered via
		  on-the-job-training (OJT) or to training delivered via a self-paced
		  mode.
3. "Company" means a business
		  currently operating in the state that has filed an Arkansas corporate income
		  tax return for the year prior to the year in which the application was
		  submitted and meets eligibility criteria.
4. "Consortium" is a group of companies which
		  includes at least three (3) eligible companies, as defined in section III. A.,
		  and for fiscal purposes is either a private, not-for-profit corporation or is
		  an organized group that has a coordinating board or committee, a mission
		  statement and has bylaws and a bank account requiring at least two (2)
		  consortium member signatures. Consortia may have members that are not eligible
		  companies as long as at least three (3) of the consortium member companies are
		  eligible companies. To receive the maximum amount of financial assistance, at
		  least fifty percent (50%) of the participants completing each course must be
		  employees of eligible companies.
5.
		  "Consumable materials and supplies" are training materials including textbooks
		  which are provided to each student and trainer and will not be reused in future
		  training sessions. This does not include the purchase of equipment or food and
		  drinks.
6. "Corporate headquarters"
		  means the facility or portion of a facility where corporate staff employees are
		  physically employed, and where the majority of the company's financial,
		  personnel, legal, planning, information technology, or other headquarters
		  related functions are handled either on a regional basis or national basis.
		  These facilities include establishments primarily engaged in administering,
		  overseeing, and managing other establishments of the company or enterprise as
		  classified in sector 551114 of the North American Industrial Classification
		  System (NAICS). A corporate headquarters must be a regional corporate
		  headquarters or a national corporate headquarters.
7. "County or state average hourly wage"
		  means the weighted average weekly earnings for Arkansans in all industries,
		  both statewide and county wide, as calculated by the Arkansas Department of
		  Workforce Services in their most recent Annual Covered Employment and Earnings
		  publication, divided by forty (40).
8. "Customized industry-specific training"
		  means training that is developed and/or customized to meet the specific needs
		  of the company.
9. "Director" means
		  the Director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
10. "Distribution center" means a facility
		  for the reception, storage, and shipping of:
A. A business' own products or products that
		  the business wholesales to retail businesses or ships to its own retail outlets
		  if seventy-five percent (75%) of the sales revenues are from out of
		  state;
B. Products owned by other
		  companies with which the business has contracts for storage and shipping if
		  seventy-five percent (75%) of the sales revenues of the product owner are from
		  out-of-state customers; or
C.
		  Products for sale to the general public if seventy-five percent (75%) of the
		  sales revenues are from out-of-state customers.
11. "Eligible recipients" means a full-time
		  permanent employee, of an Arkansas company or consortium, who is subject to the
		  Arkansas personal income tax.
12.
		  "Full-time, permanent employee" for the purposes of this program, means a
		  person working at an Arkansas company who works at least thirty (30) hours a
		  week.
13. "Governing council" means
		  the directors, or their designees, of the Arkansas Economic Development
		  Commission, Arkansas Department of Higher Education, and the Arkansas
		  Department of Workforce Education.
14. "Instructional hour" means the unit of
		  time devoted to the delivery of training to a group of trainees that is used in
		  the calculation of the allowable reimbursement. An instructional hour is sixty
		  (60) minutes in length, including breaks, and relates to training delivered in
		  a classroom setting only. It is not relevant to training delivered via OJT or
		  to training delivered via a self-paced mode.
15. "Intermodal facility" means a facility
		  with more than one (1) mode of interconnected movement of freight or commerce.
		  All businesses in this group shall derive at least seventy-five percent (75%)
		  of their sales revenue from out of state.
16. "Internal training" means classroom
		  training provided to company employees by company trainers that may be either
		  full-time employees of the company or consultants paid by the company. Support
		  for internal training can only be in the form of an income tax
		  credit.
17. "National corporate
		  headquarters" means the sole corporate headquarters in the nation that handles
		  headquarters related functions on a national basis.
18. "Non-retail business" means a business
		  that derives less than ten percent (10%) of its total Arkansas revenue from
		  sales to the general public.
19.
		  "Office sector business" means:
A. Business
		  operations that support primary business needs, including, but not limited to,
		  customer service, credit accounting, telemarketing, claims processing, and
		  other administrative functions;
B.
		  All businesses in this group must be non-retail businesses and derive at least
		  seventy-five percent (75%) of their sales revenue from out of state.
20. "Partnership" means a group of
		  eligible companies that identify a common training need and arrange for a class
		  or series of classes to meet this need without forming a formal consortium. In
		  this case, one (1) company serves as the fiscal agent for the group and a
		  single application is submitted for the identified class(es) which meet the
		  needs of the group. The fiscal agent would assume fiscal responsibility for
		  collecting each participating company's share of the training cost, for paying
		  the training provider, and for maintaining the required records and receipts
		  required by the EWTP. Unlike consortia, partnerships cannot include ineligible
		  companies.
21. "Potential new
		  workforce" means two (2) or more eligible companies with common job skill
		  requirements requiring a minimum of fifteen (15) new employees and conducting a
		  minimum of fifteen (15) hours of pre-employment training, thereby allowing
		  prospective employees and employers an opportunity to evaluate one another
		  before making employment commitments.
22. "Prerequisite literacy skills" means
		  those basic skills needed in order to learn the content of a given training
		  course. Necessary prerequisite skills will vary depending on the course and
		  should generally be determined using a test suited to the purpose.
23. "Region" or "regional" means a geographic
		  area comprised of two (2) or more states, including this state.
24. "Regional corporate headquarters" means a
		  site that:
A. Is the sole corporate
		  headquarters within the region; and
B. Handles headquarters related functions on
		  a regional basis.
25.
		  "Scientific and technical services business" means a business:
A. Primarily engaged in performing scientific
		  and technical activities for others, including;
(i) Architectural and engineering design;
		  and
(ii) Computer programming and
		  computer systems design;
B. Selling expertise;
C. Having production processes that are
		  almost wholly dependent on worker skills;
D. Deriving at least seventy-five percent
		  (75%) of their sales revenue from out of state.
26. "Skills upgrade training" means new
		  skills and knowledge development necessary to enhance productivity, improve
		  performance and make the company more competitive.
27. "State-supported educational institution"
		  means a secondary or post-secondary Arkansas educational institution that
		  receives the majority of its funding from state or local tax revenues except
		  that, for purposes of this act, Texarkana College may be considered a state
		  supported educational institution for the purpose of delivering training
		  services to eligible companies located in Miller County, Arkansas, provided if
		  Texarkana College continues to waive out-of-state tuition for residents of
		  Arkansas.
28. "Training consultant"
		  means a person whose primary source of income comes from charging clients for
		  the delivery of customized training or a person who has formed a business, is a
		  partner in a business, or works for a business whose primary purpose is to
		  provide customized training to clients
. The use of training consultants
		  in this program is to be initiated only by a state-supported educational
		  institution, or an Arkansas Economic Development Commission
		  representative.