CA- Going back to school to get and EMT certification and need to keep collecting unemployment

I was let go at the end of September from from my 9-5 job in a standard business environment working in the marketing department. I have a bachelors degree in business.

I currently would like to go back to community college in January for Emergency Medical

Technician courses that are 7.5 units for the entire semester (jan-may). The classes are 6pm-8:30pm four nights per evening. The goal is to receive my emt certificate so I can go to work for an ambulance company and build my experience to at some point join a fire department.

I understand I may still be able to collect unemployment insurance as these classes do not interfere with "normal hours" that I would work if I did gain employment in an industry similar to my past job. I also understand that I may be asked if I would be willing to drop or reduce classes if they did interfere with possible a job opportunity which I would be willing to do.

Am I taking a risk here by checking "yes" box on my bi-weekly EDD questionnaire? Can I call the EDD beforehand and ask if I would be eligible for unemployment if I attended these classes?

This is a tricky topic and I do not know how to proceed.

Help!

Thanks,

Dan


Hi Dan,

You better believe it's a tricky topic. You can tell from just the few posts here .. that checking the "yes box" can halt benefits pending an interview to "determine" continuing eligibility and that interview may be a month or more in the future.

If I were you, I'd call the EDD. Without approval from the department, the SOP seems to be suspend the benefits until you have the interview which assesses your availability for work. I would do this even if I had to stay on hold and or redial for a week. Minimize the possibility of an eligibility issue before .. not after.

The danger of benefits being stopped even though you are still able and available for work is real and it's real in many states even if you have been approved for training through the "Workforce Investment Act" which, given that you said you wanted to become an EMT .. I would investigate.


Anyone in your position, before checking that yes box, should first make an effort to circumvent the possibility of a benefit holdup due to an eligibility issue whether approved training or not.

If everyone could just understand that although you are no longer an employee who needs to follow the rules of an employer .. you are now a slave to continuing entitlement to unemployment benefits and even though most states have very poor handbooks to follow and refer to in case of questions .. you still must follow the rules .. no excuses.

I realize I have not really answered your question of how to assure your benefits are not stopped, but I of course don't have all the answers, especially when it comes to issues of continuing benefits. These are issues which I use to refer to as "claimant only issues".

This PDF from the US DOL might help a little.

But I can also recognize a problem when I see one and I sometimes I think my view of how unemployment works is a little, maybe even radically different than all the pundits out there writing about unemployment. I'm definitely not a pundit, I'm you, or anyone else who works for a living, but ended up in a job that required me to learn about this stuff.

My original answer was so long and became so off topic to your question .. I decided I should probably add a page to this website just for my ramblings about what I think is wrong with the system as it exist now.

It's old and decrepit. It's basically unchanged since 1939 and my view is that it is now held together with gum and bailing wire.

Instead of reform, congress would rather keep chugging down the road with smoke billowing ..

It might have been a good ride when the kids were young, but the vehicle is now unsafe for the great-great grandkids.