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So I'm just curious what the consensus is here among other people who may have had an experience similar to mine or who may be able to provide some insight...
Some back story:
I've been bartending since getting laid off in the Great Recession and wanted to get out of the industry and attempt to move into a more stable, family-style career. While working at my most recent job (which I started as part-time in 2012) I enrolled in a program at one of my local community colleges to obtain an AS degree that would make me eligible to work in a more lucrative, mainstream career. I'd be making more money than I currently was.
With permission of my employer, I registered for school full-time (since I was only working about 20 hrs a week). This was August of 2014.
Come November, with me working part-time and taking full-time classes, 2 employees quit. Unable to hire anyone new (because apparently hiring is REALLY hard) my boss asked me to work full-time, to which I agreed with the stipulation being that come Spring, I was going to go back to school full-time and work part-time. This was agreed upon. I was only able to maintain this schedule because one of my classes was only for half of the semester; had that course gone until December, I would have been unable to do this.
Come Spring 2015, we hadn't hired anyone and I was asked to remain full-time. Since I knew there wasn't going to be any way to take full-time classes (the college that offers a very specific certificate that I'm working on is the only one in Northern California and is 1.5 hrs from my house in traffic) I opted to take part-time classes and try to piecemeal them into my schedule. This was a disaster and I was forced to drop since my boss wasn't able to accommodate my school schedule.
Now, in Summer 2015, I approached my boss about dropping to part-time so that I could return to school again, my boss said she'd be unable to accommodate my request and that she was looking at trying to hire 'at least 1 more full-timer, possibly 2'. So on June 18th, I handed in my resignation, stating that I was leaving to go back to school.
What I'm going to argue:
Section 1267 states that:
"Notwithstanding any other provision of this division, with
respect to an unemployed individual otherwise eligible for benefits,
those benefits shall not be denied to an individual for any week
because he or she is in eligible training or retraining, as described
in Section 1269 or 1269.1, or because of the application to any such
week in training or retraining of any law of this state relating to
availability for work, active search for work, refusal to accept
work, or for leaving his or her most recent work, if continuing the
most recent work would require the individual to terminate his or her
training or retraining course of instruction.
I'd always heard the adage that you can't collect unemployment while going to school, and that's certainly not my intent; my goal is to find part-time work so that I can continue to go to school full-time and complete my retraining course in order to obtain my certificate. Here's something I just learned recently, though, that I feel like really strengthens my case: The program in which I'm currently enrolled is on the list of approved programs and courses by the state of California as per the requirements listed in Unemployment Insurance Code 1269, in the ETPL listing:
"BB. Approved Enrollment in State Training, Retraining, or Apprenticeship Course
The claimant quit your employment to attend a State-approved training, retraining, or apprenticeship course. Available information shows that the claimant had good cause for leaving work."
In summary:
1) Began a 2yr full-time AS degree program that I later found out is on the list of State Approved programs while working part-time and with the full approval of my boss
2) Was asked to switch from part-time to full-time due to lack of employees after 2 people quit
3) Was unable to continue classes full-time due to inability to go back to part-time work
4) Registered for classes part-time due to full-time work status
5) Had to drop class for Spring 2015 semester due to inability to attend class because of full-time scheduling
6) Voluntarily Quit with two weeks notice on June 18th in order to go back to school full-time come Fall 2015
7) Using Section 1267 to argue that my VQ was warranted because I was unable to continue my already-begun-program at full-time status, and my employer was unwilling to move me back to part-time status. Without being part-time, due to the distance of the school and the limited classes offered (because it's a specialty program, there are usually only 1 section of each class offered per semester) I was unable to continue my education. Additionally, my program is noted as being approved on the CalJobs website of ETPL programs.
I want to make sure that I have all my ducks in a row when I have my phone interview on July 13th. I don't forsee issues here because I actually really liked the people I worked with and my boss wasn't a ass, she was just between a rock and a hard place. I left on good terms and there (hopefully) won't be any bad-blood/manipulation.
This is where your argument fails. You have to be unemployed AND then be in approved training to invoke this section.
You QUIT to be come unemployed. Doesn't count.
If you want to pull this off you have to PROVE that your employer made a deal with you (to go part-time when school started), busted the deal, you complained, and the employer still told you, "no." You should have gotten help BEFORE you quit. I'd have told you to text your boss and say, "remember when you told me you'd hire people and let me work part-time so I could go back to school." The employer might have responded, "yeah, I know. I'm still working on it." At that point, you'd have been golden.
Next time, do NOT go it alone. You just don't have the experience with the system.
Damn, thanks for the advice. Well that's a bummer. I guess it's still worth a long shot since I have nothing to lose but thank you for the advice and knowledge.
Just go through the motions in the beginning, and say you quit, and don't commit to a reason. Appeal it, again without stating a reason. Then pray for an employer no-show at your hearing because they think you'll lose again or because they already won once. Then when it's just you and the judge, your story will be uncontested.
You'll be able to say: You were working part-time while going to school. Your job was only part-time because that's what you agreed to. When two employees quit, you were asked to TEMPORARILY work full-time and would be returned to part-time when school started. You reminded the employer many times as the start of school approached. You were assured that your schedule would be put back to what was agreed upon. When school started, your employer wouldn't give you the schedule to accommodate your schooling AS PROMISED, and you had to quit because the employer said, "if you don't come to work the schedule as assigned, don't come back at all."
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