Valley Industrial Association · ThinkAI Lab Employer intake — Incumbent Worker Training

Program: Applied Organizational Intelligence for Manufacturers
Funding: DuPage County IWT · WorkNet DuPage
Program year: July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027
Delivery: ThinkAI / Bureau Gravity, Aurora IL

The 20-minute IWT application.

Most of the WorkNet DuPage application is identical for every employer in this program — the course, the provider, the schedule, the credential. VIA fills all of that in for you.

This intake collects only what's specific to your company. Answer it once, and VIA assembles your complete application packet, runs the wage-match numbers with you, and coordinates submission to WorkNet DuPage.

Prefer to do this on a call? Book 20 minutes with Kathy Gilmore and we'll complete it together — just have the checklist below on hand.

Have these on hand before you start

With these ready, the whole intake takes about 20 minutes. Nothing here requires employee Social Security numbers — those are collected securely only after WorkNet approves your application.

Company legal name and facility address
FEIN (format 12-3456789)
NAICS code
IL Unemployment Insurance account number (1234567-8)
Total employee headcount
Two company contacts (WorkNet requires both)
Your participant list: 4–10 names and job titles
Participants' average hourly wage

Leave this field empty:

Company identity

Exactly as it should appear on the WorkNet application. The two number formats below are WorkNet's required formats.

Company legal name

Facility street address (the DuPage County facility)

City

ZIP code (State: IL)

FEIN format 12-3456789

NAICS code

UI account number format 1234567-8

Ethnicity of company ownership asked on WorkNet's cover sheet

Points of contact

WorkNet requires two — the secondary contact is not optional. Applications missing one are returned.

Primary contact

Name and title

Phone

Secondary contact (required)

Name and title

Phone

Company profile

Headcount matters: it sets your required employer match — 10% of training cost at 50 or fewer employees, 25% at 51–100, 50% at 100+. The match check below uses this number.

Years in business

Total number of employees

What do you make at the DuPage County facility? 2–3 plain sentences

Your cohort

Cohort size sets your total training cost. Each participant gets a 30-minute intake plus three 3.5-hour labs — 11 facilitated hours — and leaves with a completed workplace knowledge artifact and the Applied Organizational Intelligence Certificate.

Cohort size

Participants' average hourly wage estimate is fine for now

Participant job titles one per line; names optional at this stage

Match check

Your employer match is normally met by the wages you pay participants during training — not out of pocket. This runs the numbers as you type, using your headcount, cohort, and wage from above.

Wage-match calculation cohort × 11 hrs × avg wage

Total training cost—

Your match tier —

Required employer match—

Documented training wages (11 hrs each)—

Enter headcount, cohort size, and average wage to run the check.

Participants also do ~5–10 hours of independent work between labs. If done on paid time and tracked (dates, days, hours), those hours can often be added to your documented total — WorkNet asks that the tracking method be agreed with them first. VIA handles that conversation.

Will training take place during regular, paid work hours?

Yes No

Your business need — in your own words

This is the one part of the application VIA can't write for you, and it's what reviewers weigh most. Boilerplate is easy to spot; one real number, process name, or person-risk from your shop outscores a page of generic language.

Which of these genuinely apply? Check only the real ones.

Workers don't have in-demand AI skillsNo sanctioned, safe way to use AI tools productively on the job Key-person knowledge riskCritical know-how is undocumented and held by one or two veterans Adverse market trends or competitive pressureCompetitors are building AI-era capability; margins demand running leaner Changes in management philosophy or ownership Strong possibility of job security or growth if workers attain new skills

How will this training affect your productivity, revenue, or ability to compete? Name at least one concrete target — a process you'll document for the first time, onboarding time you expect to cut, a dependency you'll reduce.

What happens if this training doesn't happen? Real stakes read as credible: a pending retirement, a single point of failure, onboarding that takes too long.

Is any participant's pay, title, or responsibility already changing in connection with this training? Optional — but a planned raise or promotion, honestly documented, is the strongest scoring lever after the credential itself.

Approval comes before training. Nothing is scheduled and no cost is incurred until WorkNet DuPage issues written approval. VIA manages that timeline — submitting this intake starts it.

No Social Security numbers here. WorkNet requires an SSN per participant for wage verification, but only after approval. VIA will give you a secure channel for those — never email them.

Anything else VIA should know? Optional — scheduling constraints, questions, shift coverage concerns

What happens next: VIA assembles your full WorkNet application from this intake, sends you one draft to review and sign, and submits it. You'll hear from Kathy within one business day.