An uncommon program retraining Chicago’s out-of-work middle class is looking for new recruits to fill a second class just as the inaugural session wraps up.

The six-month-long program, run by Chicago Career Tech in association with World Business Chicago, is built with $25 million in city funds and augmented by state and corporate dollars.

Lauded as a first of a kind program in its focus on the “middle class,” the retraining is open to people who were employed across the labor market and made between $25,000 and $75,000 and are now receiving unemployment or have fallen of the backside of unemployment. Those chosen learn tech-based skills for jobs of the 21st century not based in manufacturing.

The first classes started in May and end in October.

The idea is to focus on middle class jobs that are gone and retrain those workers, Career Tech executive director Marie Lynch said. It’s also a message to the world that Chicago is a tech city, she said.

Lynch said credit for the program goes to Mayor Richard M. Daley who spent a dozen months conceiving the program before taking it to corporate partners and brining it to life in under 12 months.

The training program itself responds to changing job-market data and every six months alterations are made to produce workers for “high growth jobs” in tech fields. Right now, that means healthcare information technology and telecommunications. Career Tech added Webmaster training and technical sales into the mix for their next program, which starts in October.

With partners like Northern Trust, Microsoft, CNA and the Joyce Foundation the first program attracted a 45-percent rate of bachelor’s degrees among the cadre. On average they made $45,000 when last employed.

“Many of these unemployed middle-income workers had held professional and administrative jobs for years or even decades. After being displaced through layoffs and other workforce reductions, these individuals often do not have the resources available to secure the training they need to be marketable in today’s technology-driven economy,” Lynch said,

Out-of-workers allowed into the program pass an application process, including phone and face-to-face interviews, before beginning a six-day a week schedule for six months.