BISMARCK, N.D. (KXNET) — On Thursday, the legislative assembly’s workforce committee met to discuss funding distribution for TrainND — a program to help develop the skills you need to get the career you want.

The organization partners with technical colleges in each region of the state, providing certifications such as CNAs and CDLs as well as other workplace-required skills.

The executive directors from each region of TrainND gave presentations about how the numbers are looking.

“Fiscal year ’22, we saw a 91.5% post-Covid rebound,” said TrainND Northwest’s Executive Director Kenley Nebeker. “We now in the last past two fiscal years have entered a new norm of between eight and 10,000 students, unduplicated, per year.”

One of the main points from the presentations was the distribution of funding for each of the colleges.

Earlier this year, TrainND Northwest testified in the legislature, hoping to change the funding distribution to favor past performance and student population. However, TrainND Southeast does not agree with this method.

“How can you compare a student in each of these classes and say they should be counted equally? This is comparing apples to oranges,” said TrainND Southeast Director Susie Richards Carlson. “This is not an equitable assessment to then receive a greater portion of the state funds just simply based on student head count.”

Carlson adds that the original proposed change of the funding model would disproportionately reward one region over the other.