AI Enablement for Small Business Teams
10 hours — 2 hrs × 5 weeks
Cohort up to 8
$2,500
per trainee
Any office team — admin, bookkeeping, operations, sales support
Massachusetts Workforce Training Fund
Massachusetts will pay for your team's AI training.
Every for-profit employer here already pays into the Workforce Training Fund through a surcharge on unemployment insurance. Commonwealth Corporation gives that money back as training grants. If your company has 100 or fewer Massachusetts employees, the state reimburses 100% of an approved course, up to $3,000 per employee.
Check if you qualify15 minutes. If you don't qualify, you'll know in the first five.
Support Forge has registered as a training provider with the Express Program. Our courses are in review with Commonwealth Corporation and will appear in the state directory shortly. Get in touch now and we will hold a cohort date for you.
First question
Do you qualify?
All six have to be true. Most of the time the answer is clear in under a minute. If only the third one fails, skip ahead to the General Program.
- 01Your trainees are W-2 employees.Owners with no payroll, 1099 contractors, and independent agents do not count.
- 02They work in Massachusetts.And the company pays into the Workforce Training Fund through the unemployment insurance surcharge.
- 03The company has 100 or fewer employees.More than 100 means the General Program instead — also real money, covered below.
- 04You have a physical Massachusetts location you own or lease.A home address or a P.O. box does not qualify.
- 05You are current with the state.You can produce three documents: a Department of Revenue Certificate of Good Standing dated within six months, a Department of Unemployment Assistance Certificate of Compliance, and a W-9.
- 06No repeat training inside five years.Your trainees have not taken the same or similar state-funded training in the last five years. Training happens on paid time at regular pay.
Program one
The Express Program
100% of the course cost back. The caps are $3,000 per employee per course, $15,000 per company per calendar year, and $300 per instructional hour. Anything above those caps is on the company.
What changed on April 1, 2026
Employers with 51 to 100 Massachusetts employees used to get 50% back. They now get 100%.
If you looked at this program before last spring and decided it wasn't worth the paperwork, look again. The same update raised the General Program cap and allowed employers to hold both grants at once.
- 01
Pick a course
It has to come from the state’s Express Course Directory.
- 02
Apply online
At least 21 days before the first session. Your agreement start date is set automatically 21 days out.
- 03
Run the training
On paid time, at regular pay, with the full listed hours delivered.
- 04
Submit for reimbursement
You paid the provider; the Commonwealth pays you back.
The clock
Your course must start within six months of applying, and all training must finish within twelve months of the agreement start date.
A worked example
Five people from a 30-person company take a ten-hour course at $2,500 each. That is $12,500, reimbursed in full, inside the $15,000 annual cap. Run a second cohort after January 1 and the cap resets.
Program two
The General Program
For employers over 100 Massachusetts staff, or anyone who wants a larger program across the year. Since April 1, 2026 an employer may hold an Express grant and a General grant at the same time.
- Request $10,000 to $200,000. The cap rose from $125,000 on April 1, 2026.
- Match it one to one. And the wages you pay employees while they sit in training count toward your match.
- Cost caps. $300 per hour of instruction including materials; average cost per participant may not exceed $3,000.
- Rolling applications. Decisions generally within 60 days. The grant is completed within two years.
- Open to any size. Any Massachusetts employer that contributes to the Fund. Non-profits qualify only under the contributory method. Government entities do not.
Read this part
What these grants will not pay for.
This is where most plans come apart, so it is worth being blunt. Both programs pay for instruction. Neither pays for consulting, coaching, one-on-one work, employee wages, exam or certification fees, tuition reimbursement, travel, or software subscriptions.
There is a second rule that matters more than it sounds. An approved course teaches standardized material to every trainee, with hands-on practice on case studies. Applying the material to your own systems is not a grant-funded activity. In practice that means the course teaches your team the method on a practice company, and the work of building it inside your business is a separate engagement. We structure it that way from the start, so there is never a question at reimbursement time.
Self-paced and on-demand courses are not fundable either. Approved training is live and instructor-led.
Our courses
Five courses, filed with the state.
All live and instructor-led, delivered during paid work hours, priced per trainee with a two-seat minimum. Every course is priced at $250 per instructional hour, under the state's $300 cap, so the full cost is reimbursable.
Claude Code for Operations and Data Teams
12 hours — 3 hrs × 4 weeks
Cohort up to 6
$3,000
per trainee
Ops managers, controllers, analysts, IT generalists
AI for Finance, Accounting and Payroll Teams
10 hours — 2 hrs × 5 weeks
Cohort up to 8
$2,500
per trainee
Bookkeepers, controllers, payroll administrators
AI for Field Service and Trades Businesses
10 hours — 2 hrs × 5 weeks
Cohort up to 8
$2,500
per trainee
Dealers, contractors, service and repair shops
AI for Professional Practices
10 hours — 2 hrs × 5 weeks
Cohort up to 8
$2,500
per trainee
Law firms, brokerages, advisory practices
Course listings are in review with Commonwealth Corporation. Ask us to hold a cohort date
While you are here
Free AI training, for every Massachusetts resident.
Separate from the grants, and worth knowing about.
Through the Massachusetts AI Hub's partnership with Google, every Massachusetts resident can take the Google AI Professional Certificate, Google AI Essentials, and the Google Career Certificates at no cost through December 31, 2027. You express interest on the AI Hub's site and work through the courses at your own pace.
We tell clients to take them. They are genuinely good, and they cost nothing.
They are also self-paced, which means they are not what the Workforce Training Fund reimburses. The two do different jobs: a certificate teaches an individual the concepts on their own time; a funded course puts your whole team in a room with an instructor and sends them back with the same method and the same vocabulary. Teams that do both get further than teams that do either.
Massachusetts AI Hub — Google certificatesOne more program
If you are hiring, not training.
Massachusetts offers a Registered Apprenticeship Tax Credit worth 50% of an apprentice's wages, up to $4,800 per apprentice per year. For the 2026 tax year, the state expanded eligibility to include occupations that carry AI-related credentials.
That is a credit against tax on a new hire, not a training grant for existing staff, so it sits outside everything above. If it applies to you, the Division of Apprentice Standards is at (617) 626-5442 or apprenticeship@mass.gov.
Larger, partnership-based workforce programs also exist — the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund funds multi-year programs, usually built with a nonprofit or workforce board partner, to move people into jobs. It is a different kind of undertaking than a course for your team this quarter.
Straight answer
If none of this fits you.
Worth saying plainly, because it applies to a lot of good companies.
Payroll outside Massachusetts
The Workforce Training Fund is funded by Massachusetts employers for Massachusetts employees. An out-of-state company does not qualify, even a few miles over the line.
A workforce of 1099 contractors
Real estate brokerages are the common case: the agents are contractors, so only W-2 office staff would count.
Government and public entities
Regional agencies and public bodies are excluded from the General Program by rule.
An owner with no employees
There is no payroll, so there is nothing to train under the program.
No owned or leased Massachusetts premises
A home-based business does not meet the location test.
If that is you, the training is still worth doing — it just comes out of the operating budget like any other investment, and we will tell you that up front rather than after you have filled out three forms.
Questions we get
Before you apply.
- Does the state pay us, or pay you?
- Neither. You pay us for the course, then the Commonwealth reimburses you. We are not paid by the state and we have no role in your reimbursement.
- Do you handle the application?
- No. The employer applies. We will answer questions about our own courses, and we cannot charge you for help with the application — that is a program rule, not a preference.
- How long before we can start?
- Apply at least 21 days before the first session. Realistically, a course you decide on this week starts about a month out.
- Can we use this for the AI work you are already doing with us?
- The training portion, yes, as a course going forward. Implementation and consulting are not fundable, and neither is work already delivered. Those stay on a normal engagement.
- What if we have more than 100 employees?
- The General Program, and the wages you pay during training count toward your match.
- Can we do both programs?
- Yes, as of April 1, 2026.
- Is your course any good?
- The state does not vouch for that. Commonwealth Corporation’s directory carries an explicit note that it makes no endorsement of the quality of listed providers or courses. Ask us for references and talk to someone who has done it.
Ready to find out?
Fifteen minutes on the phone settles it: whether you qualify, which course fits, and what the sequence looks like. If you do not qualify, you will know that in the first five minutes.
Program terms summarized from Commonwealth Corporation's published guidelines (commcorp.org/express and the General Program guidelines) and from the Massachusetts AI Hub and the Division of Apprentice Standards, verified September 19, 2026. The programs' own guidelines govern, and caps and eligibility change with available funding — they last changed April 1, 2026. Support Forge LLC is a registered Express training provider; it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Commonwealth Corporation or the Workforce Training Fund. Program questions go to express@commcorp.org.