Funding for the Learning Aligned Employment Program (LAEP) has been discontinued by the State of California. One-time funding has been identified to support the winding-down of the program in the 2024–25 academic year.
Review this communication for guidance on navigating this change.
(This video is the official training companion for the Learning Aligned Employment Program)
Hire students to support research conducted in your department with LAEP!
The Learning-Aligned Employment Program (LAEP) is a state funded work-study program that offers eligible students the opportunity to earn money to help defray their educational costs, while gaining education-aligned, career-related employment.
How does LAEP benefit the Hiring Department?
Similar to the Work-Study Program, LAEP will provide a subsidy to pay a portion of the student’s wages. LAEP will subsidize 100% of the students wages to departments who offer eligible LAEP jobs to students. To help support the administration of the program, a 7% surcharge/administrative fee will be assessed to the participating department for a net cost of 7% to the hiring department.
How does LAEP benefit the Student?
Similar to the Work-Study Program, LAEP was designed to enhance the affordability of higher education by providing students part-time opportunities to earn their financial aid, rather than borrowing student loans. LAEP promotes equity in work-based learning opportunities to underrepresented undergraduate students to align their education with workforce needs.
Breakdown of the LAEP Subsidy and Department Costs
100% LAEP Subsidy
7% Administrative Surcharge
The Department’s Net Cost is 7%
Employer Eligibility
Departments within the UC Berkeley campus are eligible if their learning-aligned employment opportunities provide eligible students with direct opportunities to participate in the research that is undertaken by their respective hiring department, research center, or research institute.
Research should be a significant component of any LAEP position. Research is not limited to scientific research and can take place outside of an academic discipline. The research should be directed and supervised by a faculty, staff or other mentor who will determine the research requirements.
Student Eligibility
Underrepresented, undergraduate students meeting all of the following criteria are eligible to participate in LAEP:
California residents
Enrolled in 6 or more units
Meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)
Filed a FAFSA or CADAA and have work-study eligibility
Demonstrated financial need
Eligible to work in the U.S., including current DACA holders
Utilize the LAEP Employer Guide for a summary on how to get started with LAEP. For more information, please review the additional details provided below.
Creating a Job and a Job Referral
In order for your department to receive the subsidy, you must first create a LAEP job in the Work-Study Management System (WSMS) and complete the referral process as detailed below.
1. Creating a job on the Work-Study Management System (WSMS):
Complete the job request form. All fields are required
In the “Job Category” section, select “LAEP Research” in the drop down menu - you must select this option to indicate that the job you are creating is LAEP, and not Work-Study.
When finished, select "Process Job Request" at the bottom of the page. Take note of the 10-digit job number that you’ve created for future consultation.
Reminders:
The department ID used when creating a job in WSMS must match the department ID in the UCPath position number.
Consult your departments HR Partner/Generalist or Budget/Financial Analyst for support in creating or providing a valid UCPath position number.
Once a job is submitted, FASO staff will review and validate the job within 2-3 business days.
Jobs registered within WSMS are for advertisement purposes; this does not replace the campus HR hiring process. Consult your departments HR Partner/Generalist for assistance with the HR hiring/onboarding. You can locate your HR Partner/Generalist using the Region Finder.
Jobs must be re-registered within WSMS each program year, they do not roll over from one year to the next.
2. The Referral Process: Offer the job to the student, and confirm if the student has accepted the job offer
Locate the job and click on the 10-digit job number in the left column
Select "Offer Job"
Enter the Student ID (SID), UCPath Position number, non-federal chartstring that will be used to pay the 7% LAEP administrative surcharge and indicate if the student will earn academic credit within their LAEP job. Follow the instructions displayed on the page.
Once you receive the confirmation message of a successful offer, monitor and confirm if the student accepted your Job Offer/Referral (review Step #3).
Reminders:
Individual, single-headcount positions in UCPath are required for positions utilizing LAEP.
The UCPath position must be fully funded (i.e. tied to position funding that is not a default chartstring or expired).
The WSMS referral process is separate from the UCPath onboarding/hiring process. For questions about the UCPath hiring process, please contact your HR Partner/Generalist. You can locate your HR Partner/Generalist using the Region Finder. The Financial Aid and Scholarships Office is not part of the HR hiring/onboarding process.
This process is directly linked to student eligibility. If a student is confirmed eligible at the time you attempt the offer, you’ll receive a confirmation message. If the student is not LAEP eligible, you will receive an error message, as an offer cannot be processed for anyone who is not eligible.
If you proceed with hiring a student who is not eligible (as determined by an unsuccessful offer), the department is responsible for 100% of the earnings and will not receive the subsidy.
The referral process must be completed each academic year, even if the same student will be working in the same position. A student’s LAEP eligibility is subject to change each academic year, so referrals do not roll over from year-to-year.
Unearned LAEP awards do not carry forward to the next academic year.
3. Confirm Student Accepted Job Offer/Referral
Once you’ve successfully offered a job to your selected candidate, the student will receive an email notifying them to log in to the Student Portal of the Work-Study Management System. (WSMS) where they can accept or decline the job offered. Only after the student accepts the job offer will the referral process be complete. This step officially links a student’s LAEP award to a specific job. You can confirm if the student has accepted your job offer by following the steps below:
Enter the Student ID (SID) in the SID field and click search
Review the search results and locate the correct student record based on the department name and job number (students can have more than one work-study/LAEP job)
Review the “Status” column for the current job offer status.
Pending: The job has been offered and neither accepted nor declined by the student
Accepted: The job has been accepted by the student
Declined: The job has been declined by the student
The LAEP referral is complete once the status column reflects an accepted status.
Reminders:
The Pool ID (alpha code) drives the LAEP subsidy; the Pool ID is assigned exclusively by the Financial Aid And Scholarships Office once the student accepts the referral.
WSMS will generate an email to notify the three contacts (payroll representative, general contact, supervisor) listed on the accepted LAEP job. This email contains important information such as the students earnings limit for the academic year and the LAEP referral effective date. This same information can be viewed on the Work-Study Management System (WSMS).
LAEP effective date is the day in which the student accepts the job offer. Earnings prior to a student’s LAEP referral effective date are not eligible for the subsidy. There are no exceptions to this policy.
LAEP Award
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A student’s LAEP award/earnings limit is the maximum gross earnings eligible for LAEP subsidy. If the student earns more than their LAEP award amount, the department will be responsible for paying 100% of earnings exceeding the student LAEP award/earnings limit.
Changes to LAEP Award
LAEP award/earnings limit can increase or decrease at any time during the award year based on changes to a student’s financial aid. It is not a guaranteed amount for the award year.
Any updates that change the LAEP/work-study award will trigger an auto-generated email notification to the three contacts listed on the LAEP job, and it will include the updated award/earnings limit.
Examples of why a LAEP award can change include:
Student receives additional financial aid which reduces LAEP award eligibility
Student has an incomplete financial aid task
Student accepts another work-study or LAEP job
Student converts loans to work-study/LAEP or work-study/LAEP (unearned) to loans
Student is no longer enrolled
Further, departments are responsible for tracking a student's LAEP earnings, both to confirm that the subsidy is being applied as expected, and to monitor the award limit as it approaches. If a student is permitted to earn more than the LAEP award/earnings limit, departments are responsible for 100% of student earnings exceeding this limit. Departments are also encouraged to consider other potential costs, e.g., fringe benefits which are not subsidized by LAEP funds. If such costs are incurred, the department must cover 100% of the cost.
Locate the student by using one of the search filters, and then click on “search”
Click on the student’s name linked
Students should be directed to log into CalCentral to review their awards and tasks and to submit a case if they have any questions regarding their awards or eligibility.
LAEP Award Allocation
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The Financial Aid and Scholarships Office will determine the students work-study/LAEP award based on the FAFSA or CA Dream Act submitted. Generally, undergraduate students awards can range from a minimum of $200 to a maximum of $4,000 in work-study/LAEP award.
Depending on financial aid eligibility, students may be able request an additional $2,000 to their work-study/LAEP award after they have earned at least 70% of the work-study/LAEP award, resulting in a total award of $6,000 for the academic year.
Participation in LAEP and WS
Students can participate in both the Work-Study and LAEP simultaneously, but the jobs and hours/effort must be separate for each program.
For example, if a student has a $4,000 work-study award and the student is LAEP eligible, the student can decide to use their $4,000 award for a regular work-study job or for a LAEP job. The student can decide to split the $4,000 allocation between the two programs if the student has two separate jobs (e.g. $3,000 for LAEP job and $1,000 for WSP job).
Although the LAEP and Work-Study programs are similar, not all students on work-study are LAEP eligible due to not meeting all LAEP eligibility criteria. But, all LAEP eligible students would be eligible for work-study.
Payroll and Financial Transactions
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2023-24 LAEP Program Year
7/1/2023 - 5/10/2024 is the LAEP year. Any earnings outside of these dates are ineligible for LAEP subsidy.
Referral Effective Date
The referral effective date is the date when the student becomes eligible to receive the subsidy and is assigned based on the date the student accepts the LAEP job offer in WSMS. Any earnings prior to this date are ineligible for the subsidy, which means that Direct Retros (DR)/Salary Cost Transfers (SCT) are not allowed prior to the students referral effective date.
Confirm Your Department is Receiving the Subsidy
It is recommended that the hiring department perform a monthly reconciliation and review of the CalAnswers General Ledger Compensation by Accounting Period Report to ensure that your department is receiving the subsidy. Do not risk losing the subsidy by waiting until June to reconcile your funds.
If you do not have access to CalAnswers General Ledger, but have access to WSMS, you can confirm that your department is receiving the LAEP subsidy in WSMS.
Navigate to WSMS > Students > Student Earnings Report
Maintain Compliance of LAEP Employment
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In accordance with State regulations, employment under the LAEP program must follow the guidelines and conditions listed below:
LAEP positions must be educationally beneficial or related to a particular career interest or exploration of career options of the student.
Work performed by a LAEP student must not be related to the activities of any sectarian organization or to any partisan or nonpartisan political activities.
LAEP employment must not displace workers currently employed or impair existing contracts for services.
The LAEP position must not violate any applicable collective bargaining agreements or fill any vacancies due to a labor dispute.
LAEP students will be paid at a comparable rate to that paid for comparable positions within the employing organization. If the Participating Employer has no comparable positions, the LAEP student will be paid at a rate comparable to that paid by other organizations in the field for work involving comparable duties and responsibilities.
The number of hours the student is allowed to work must consider the extent of the student’s LAEP award and the potential harm of the combination of work and study hours on a student’s satisfactory academic progress.
The total compensation received by the student shall not exceed their LAEP award. Departments will be responsible for earnings exceeding the LAEP award/earnings limit.
LAEP employers must provide reasonable supervision.
LAEP funds will not supplant any state, federal, or institutional funds used to support existing paid positions for students.
Students are not permitted to work during scheduled class times. Exceptions include:
When a class is cancelled
An Instructor has excused the student from attending during a particular day
The student is receiving credit for their employment
All exceptions must be documented
LAEP Common Errors
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Error 15:“The student is ineligible to participate in LAEP. Unfortunately we can't disclose who is LAEP eligible or the reason for the students’ ineligibility due to FERPA, but you can direct your student to submit a case for us if they have any questions regarding their eligibility to participate in LAEP.”
How to resolve error: The student ID provided within the job offer does not meet all of the required LAEP eligibility criteria to participate in the program. Please advise your student to submit a case to the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office for more information about LAEP eligibility.
Error 13:“The UCPath position number you’ve used in the LAEP job referral has no funding in UCPath for the current academic year. The LAEP requires a valid UCPath position number that is connected to a valid funding (not a default chartstring and correct funding effective date) at the time of the referral. If you have questions related to UCPath positions, please consult your Financial Analyst, or the person who manages UCPath in your department to provide you further assistance.”
How to resolve error: The position number that has been submitted in the job offer does not have valid position funding for the current fiscal year in UCPath. Please contact your budget/financial analyst within your department that manages UCPath position funding to ensure that the position has valid funding that is active and not expired. The referral/job offer can only be extended on or after the Funding Effective Date which is in UCPath Funding Entry Inquiry.
LAEP Employer FAQs
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Please review the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for more information about LAEP. Questions not answered in the FAQs can be directed to wsp@berkeley.edu.