New efforts to help Wisconsin’s 250,000 unemployed survive the bruising recession will attract the needy into expanded training programs without punishing too many of those who fail to participate, a top state official predicts.

Starting July 1, about 10,000 unemployed people per month will be required to attend a three-hour workshop on job-seeking skills. It’s an increase over the several hundred currently participating, said state Department of Workforce Development Secretary Roberta Gassman.

Using $7 million in federal aid, the state is hiring 50 workers. The expanded service will provide not only job-hunting tips but detailed skills assessments and career counseling.

In an acknowledgment of the severity of the recession, the effort will target those who aren’t on temporary layoff and who probably will never return to their old jobs, she said.

People will get information about where the jobs are right now, how do you get connected to those jobs and, if you need training, how to get training,” Gassman said.

She emphasized that the program was not a “get tough” measure, while acknowledging that any of the 10,000 per month who miss their scheduled training session would lose a week’s unemployment benefits.

Scheduling will be flexible enough to minimize the number who are penalized, Gassman said.

Hal Bergan, administrator of the state Unemployment Insurance Division, spoke to community leaders Monday about the new program.

“The world is going to change little bit for people who are unemployed,” Bergan said. “They’re going to be required to take part in a re-employment program, at the risk of losing their benefits.

“We’re not horsing around.”

One expert said details will determine how many unemployed fail to comply with the requirement and lose benefits because of it.

There simply aren’t jobs for everyone in a recession like this, said John Keckhaver, a research analyst with the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, but training can still help prepare the jobless for when the downturn ends.

“I’ve seen a variety of types of programs that don’t help, and actually do hurt if they provide a disincentive for certain individuals to take advantage of the program,” Keckhaver said. “If it’s showing up at certain times and certain days to attend trainings, and people sort of talk about how ‘I went in and it didn’t help me any,’ the word spreads.

Many people are reluctant to accept government assistance, and their families are hurt as a result, said Buzz Davis, a longtime Stoughton activist who set up three “town meetings” to help the jobless, and saw attendance dwindle from one session to the next.

Davis convened social service providers and others for a brainstorming session Monday morning, and several said  depression, shame and other factors kept eligible unemployed people from seeking help.

Gassman said she believes the expansion of the mandatory training program will entice the unemployed to come back for more free training services — 100 to 150 workshops weekly — although further sessions won’t be mandatory. Training will take place at job centers, and the intention is nobody would have to drive more than 30 miles to attend, she said.

“We have 22 sites right now (with) maybe one person at those sites in a room near the entrance handing out brochures or showing people the computer and how to use the Internet,” Gassman said. Trainers being hired are taught how to be effective. Gassman said she welcomed one group Monday.

“In some cases we’ve been able to hire people who have been working in human resources or working as teachers,” she said. “Some of the other people we’ve hired are going to relieve our more advanced staff so that they can (be reassigned to) run these sessions.

Workforce development officials will notify the unemployed people who are to participate in training.