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I was laid off from my job in a restaurant in September, 2017, due to closing of the restaurant for major construction. I was able to get unemployment benefits (Washington state), and in addition, I used the time to go back to school... a four quarter program in Biotechnology at a local community college. I was able to get my tuition covered through the state's Worker Retraining program, and approved for CAT benefits, which allowed me to waive the job search since I'm in school. There's another program called TB that extends your benefits if you're in an approved training program, but I was denied those benefits, so my unemployment benefits will run out in a couple weeks.
I could really use those benefits... I have over two more quarters of my school program left, and part of that program is a summer internship, so I may have to work in the summer, possibly/likely unpaid.
When I met with someone from unemployment initially, they told me about the program and that I'd probably get denied because my old job wasn't in decline and I didn't need any retraining to get another restaurant job, basically. She also told me to appeal the decision and pour my heart out, etc., telling them why I need to finish my school program.
Any advice on getting benefits extended? I understand their market data, and that's the reason they basically denied me, because I "don't need training", they consider my employable, which is sort of hard to argue against--restaurant service positions are in demand in my area. However, the field I'm going into, biotech, is also in demand. The earning potential in biotech is obviously a lot higher than restaurant work, although I'm not sure they would care from their perspective.
Also, two state programs, Worker Retraining and CAT, already "approved" my school program, so according to them, they considered it appropriate to pay my tuition so that I could be employable in a better, higher paying career. That's gotta count for something, but they are separate programs so who knows.
It's possible I could argue that the field they classified me in isn't really accurate, I wasn't a server, just a food runner. I don't know that those jobs are in near as much demand as servers are, but they lump them all together.
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