DOL Opens Up $474M in Training Partnership Grants for Community Colleges

Many of our clients have already benefited from the first two rounds of funding from the Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grants program. Now the Department of Labor is set to release another $474.5 million of TAACCCT funds to community colleges to develop local employer partnerships and expand job training.

The grant funding will be released is up to $25 million increments for consortiums. Individual institutions will receive $2.37 million to $2.75 million, and every state (plus D.C. and Puerto Rico) will get at least 0.5 percent of total funding.

This latest batch of grants will be geared toward colleges that focus on strong partnerships with employers and employer organizations to best meet industry needs in their curricula and programs. Colleges are also encouraged to better track data on employment and earnings of students after they graduate, as well as build what the DOL calls “employment results scorecards” to inform prospective students who are mapping out their careers.

More can be found in this ETA news release.

Need for Labor Market Data

In the executive summary of the 88-page solicitation for grant applications (SGA), the DOL notes that “a key feature of the Round 3 Solicitation is the pre-conditions for all applicants to demonstrate employer engagement, use labor market information to focus training on local economic needs and improve programs, and evaluate their programs.”

Further, in the Statement of Need section on pages 36-37, the SGA outlines how applicants must identify the 2-digit industry sectors they are targeting — and “provide substantial and detailed evidence of current and future job opportunities for TAA-eligible workers and other adults in the targeted industries and specific occupations in the community/communities to be served.” It goes on from there:

ii. Evidence of Job Opportunities in the Targeted Industries and Occupations

o Using accurate and timely labor-market, demographic, and economic information, describe how the targeted industries and specific occupations will yield opportunities in the community for TAA-eligible workers and other adults who enter the program to obtain employment in high wage, high skill jobs or advance in their careers, and identify specific employers that are expected to hire grant participants within the period of performance.

o Provide data and analysis of both current and projected employment opportunities for each targeted industry and specific occupation. The geographic scope of the LMI data must match the geographic scope of the proposed project (such as state, regional, or national in the case of online learning). This should include data on current and expected job openings with at least one employer in the community in each targeted industry, and may include commitments from employers who expect to hire program participants.

Understanding of Skills Required in the Targeted Industries and Occupations

o Describe the job knowledge, skills, abilities, and credentials required to work in the targeted industries and occupations, and provide a description of how the applicant will engage with employers in the community to obtain their feedback on any content developed and delivered during the life of the project.

The next section of the Statement of Need addresses the gap analysis requirement:

Applicants must fully identify gaps in education and training for targeted industries and occupations, and demonstrate the need to develop or expand capacity of the institution(s) to offer training and educational opportunities. The data provided should support the need for the education and career training programs proposed by the applicant.

o Describe the significant gaps in existing education and career training programs, including researching previously funded TAACCCT projects, and infrastructure in each community for TAA-eligible workers and other adults, based on data collected through the community outreach process (described in Section I.B.5 and Appendix C), as well as relevant data from the applicant institution’s own management information systems or other data sources. The geographic scope of the gap analysis must match the geographic scope of the proposed project (such as local, state, regional, or national).