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TANF Section, WIOA Combined Plan Modifications 2026

32 work requirements due to temporary incapacitation to engage in work activities beginning the first month of assistance. Section VII(b) above addresses Wisconsin’s requirements for a parent or caretaker receiving assistance under the program to engage in work.

The W-2 program utilizes workforce development activities to address employment and training services for parents in the following ways:

Career Services: In order to connect parents to relevant and tailored career pathways that will help them receive the training and credentials needed to obtain jobs with family-sustaining wages, all W-2 applicants and participants complete a career assessment during the informal assessment process as well as throughout ongoing case management. There is a wide array of career assessments tools that W-2 agencies and job seekers use to obtain greater awareness about how a participant’s work styles, skills, and interests can be used to define a career path, assign meaningful activities, highlight strengths, identify training needs, and match the participant to fulfilling work activities and employment opportunities. While W-2 agencies are able to choose the career assessment tools that they feel best measure work styles, skills, and interests, some agencies choose to use the Department of Workforce Development’s Career Exploration online tool.

If an applicant is new to W-2 or is re-applying and does not have career assessment results documented, an assessment must be scheduled within 30 days of application and completed within 30 days of placement. If an applicant has completed a career assessment that identifies work styles, skills, and interests, and wants to remain on the career path indicated by that assessment, or is already working in a field available in the local labor market, another career assessment does not need to be completed.

Based on the results of the career assessment and career planning with a Financial and Employment Planner, W-2 participants’ Employability Plans (EP) shall include both long- term and short-term career goals with action steps, objectives, and the appropriate combination of services and training needed to achieve each goal.

Training Services: W-2 participants are assigned to education and training activities that will prepare them for careers available in local job markets.

Education and vocational assessment tools are used in combination with career assessment tools to identify the education and training needed to help individuals obtain employment that fits their work styles, skills, and interests. Results from these assessments are used in tandem to better inform the development of effective EPs and assignment of meaningful work and education and training activities, including adult basic education, technical college education, and job skills training, including customized job skills training.

Educational needs assessment tools, like the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) or Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT), test skills and aptitudes in reading, language, math computation, and applied math in order to identify current math and reading comprehension levels and any literacy or numeracy deficiencies. W-2 agencies use the educational needs assessment results to provide participants with appropriate education activities including, but not limited to, a course of study meeting the standards established under Wis. Stat. 115.29(4) for the granting of a declaration of equivalency of high school graduation; English as a Second