foa-eta-16-05.pdf

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration Notice of Availability of Funds and Funding Opportunity Announcement for the Strengthening Working Families Initiative

Announcement Type: Initial Funding Opportunity Number: FOA-ETA-16-05 Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 17.268

Key Dates: The closing date for receipt of applications under this Announcement is March 16, 2016. Applications must be received no later than 4:00:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Addresses: Mailed applications must be addressed to the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Grants Management, Attention: Steven A. Rietzke, Grant Officer, Reference FOA-ETA-16-05, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Room N4716, Washington, DC 20210. For complete application and submission information, including online application instructions, please refer to Section IV.

Executive Summary:

Our businesses, communities, and families thrive when all Americans have the opportunity to master new skills and access to training that enables them to attain gainful employment and contribute fully to our economy. A growing policy concern is that certain barriers, such as balancing family obligations and access to reliable child care, can make it difficult for low-income and working parents to participate and succeed in education and training that support employment and career advancement.1

As a part of the Administration’s efforts to support working families, the U.S. Department of Labor (or USDOL) will make approximately $25 million in grant funds available for Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) grant program to address education and training barriers for low- to middle-skilled parents by prioritizing the needs of this targeted population; addressing child care needs for parents seeking education and training; increasing access to child care resources; and bridging the gap between the workforce development and child care systems. Applicants may propose projects up to $4 million. To accommodate a range of applicants and models, including rural single or consortium applicants, there is no designated minimum amount for which communities may apply.

SWFI grants will provide low- to middle- skilled parents opportunities to advance in their careers in high-growth or in-demand H-1B industries, addressing barriers to accessing training and employment faced by those with child care responsibilities. With the help of additional public or

1 Eyster, Lauren, Tom Callan, and Gina Adams. 2014. “Balancing School, Work, and Family: Low-Income Parents’ Participation in Education and Training.” Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

private funding that grantees will leverage, these grants will promote greater availability of activities that address barriers to accessing training and employment, such as co-location of training and child care services, increased access through unconventional training delivery times or locations, flexibilities related to scheduling and child care exigencies, and improved access to child care and other related participant supportive services. These grants will give more working parents a career pathway to secure higher wage jobs by addressing the significant barriers to participating in and completing training, and in trying to find and acquire affordable, quality child care—including emergency child care—while attending skills training programs. Evidence shows that single parents who receive child care services are much more likely to complete job training programs than those who do not have access to child care services. Therefore, this competition will aim to increase participation and completion rates of those in training by supporting sustainable and innovative approaches that increase workers’ access to child care and make their participation in training as seamless as possible.

An overarching goal of SWFI is to assist in the removal of child care barriers faced by working families in need of training to secure better jobs. To support this, the Department is interested in funding projects that will simultaneously address both the individual job training needs and child care barriers of workers while also developing or improving systems navigation services that will result in sustainable systemic changes for the applicant’s community or region. This combined approach will make it easier for working families to access child care resources, ensure that investments in supporting working families benefit the long-term success of both the parent(s) (current workforce) and child (future workforce).

These grants are financed by a user fee paid by employers to bring foreign workers into the United States under the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program. This program is authorized under Section 414(c) of the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998 (ACWIA), as amended (codified at 29 USC 3224a). Grant awards will be made only to the extent that funds are available.

Grants will be awarded to the lead applicant of a public and private partnership of entities that includes:

• The public workforce investment system;

• Education and training providers, such as community colleges, community-based and faith-based organizations, and “bootcamp” style tech programs;

• Child Care Service Provider(s), Child Care Program(s), or Local Human Services

Providers; and

• Business entities.

Applications must include significant employer engagement, including a minimum of at least three employer partners, or an employer or regional industry association consisting of at least three employers, with demonstrated engagement in the project. Additional partners that reflect the character and resources of the local or regional economy and the community are strongly encouraged. This funding opportunity announcement describes the application submission requirements that are listed in Section VI.B, Content and Form of Application Submission.

Finally, the Department is committed to producing strong evidence on the effectiveness of the grantee programs; therefore, full participation in any national evaluation initiated by DOL is a condition of all grants awarded.

Table of Contents:

I. Funding Opportunity Description A. Program Purpose B. Program Authority C. Program Design Elements

II. Award Information A. Award Type and Amount B. Period of Performance

III. Eligibility Information A. Eligible Applicants B. Required Partners C. Optional Partners D. Allowable Activities E. Cost Sharing or Matching F. Geographic Scope G. Other Information

IV. Application and Submission Information A. How to Obtain an Application Package B. Content and Form of Application Submission C. Submission Date, Times, Process and Addresses D. Intergovernmental Review E. Funding Restrictions F. Other Submission Requirements

V. Application Review Information A. Criteria B. Review and Selection Process

VI. Award Administration and Information A. Award Notices B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements C. Reporting

VII. Agency Contacts VIII. Other Information

A. Transparency B. Web-Based Resources C. Industry Competency-Model and Career Clusters D. Workforce3one Resources

IX. Office of Management and Budget Information Collection

Appendices Appendix A: List of H-1B Industries and Occupations Appendix B: Definition of Terms Appendix C: Performance Projections Template Appendix D: Related Resources and Links Appendix E: Work Plan Template Appendix F: Abstract Template Appendix G: Definitions and Usual Characteristics of Sub-grants vs. Subcontracts and reporting template

I. Funding Opportunity Description

A. Program Purpose

This announcement solicits applications for the Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) grant program. On June 23, 2014, President Obama convened the White House Summit on Working Families, which was jointly hosted by the Department of Labor, Center for American Progress and the White House Council on Women and Girls. During the Summit, participants (including businesses, economists, labor leaders, legislators, advocates, the media and ordinary citizens) discussed issues that working families face. The Summit was the beginning of a larger conversation about the changes necessary in society, business policies, and in our laws to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to have a job and a family.

Working parents, particularly those with low incomes and low skills, face significant barriers to employment. Six out of ten households with children have all parents working (married working or single working parents), increasing the need for affordable and quality child care.2 With more parents working, greater access to affordable, high-quality child care is needed but is difficult to find due to steadily increasing child care costs and relatively stagnant funding to cover the costs of child care3. Even where affordable child care exists, parents have to deal with unpredictable situations where child care may be unavailable, such as when their child is sick, the child care provider is closed, they are attending professional development sessions, and other emergencies that may result in parents needing alternative solutions. Additionally, an increasing number of families have employers who shift the family member’s work schedule with minimal notice, making stable child care harder to find. It can be difficult to handle these unexpected situations, particularly for low-wage workers who cannot afford to take unpaid leave and are less likely to have flexibility in the workplace.4

While training and education can help move parents into better paying jobs, some of the barriers to employment also serve as barriers to training and education. The lack of access to affordable and consistent child care can keep parents from attending training and educational programs. Of the 21 million low-income parents, only 1 in 10 participates in education and training.5 For those low-income parents participating in education and training, almost half were working at the same time6, resulting in the additional burden of arranging for and paying the cost of child care while at work, while in training, and while commuting.

2 The Council of Economic Advisors, Nine Facts About American Families and Work, (June 2014), https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/nine_facts_about_family_and_work_real_final.pdf.

3 Eyster, Lauren, Tom Callan, and Gina Adams. 2014. “Balancing School, Work, and Family: Low-Income Parents’ Participation in Education and Training.” Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

http://www.urban.org/research/publication/balancing-school-work-and-family-low-income-parents-participation-education-and-training 4 Ibid 5 Ibid 6 Ibid

As education and earnings are strongly linked7, this FOA supports providing access to education and training to help move parents along a career pathway that will lead to better paying jobs. This FOA also encourages applicants to develop an approach that provides skills training leading to family-supporting jobs for low- to middle-skilled parents while simultaneously developing and implementing a plan for the applicant’s community or region that helps families better navigate the existing complex systems of supportive services, including increased access to child care.

To help meet these objectives, the Department is interested in supporting evidence-based strategies or innovations based on these models that remove a range of barriers to training, including child care and other needs that working families face, by investing in education and skills training in combination with customized participant supportive services. Of particular interest are new promising ideas developed through human centered design methodology and behavioral insight research8. Program strategies must include moving lower- to middle-skilled individuals into middle- to high-skilled jobs, with the goals of increasing family-supporting wages and enabling the success of the parent.

In particular, the Department is interested in supporting parents – defined as custodial parent, legal guardian, foster parent, or other person standing in loco parentis9 – who face a barrier to training, including child care and other participant supportive service needs, and are in need of increasing skills and competencies that will either prepare them for entry into an H-1B-aligned career pathway or advancement along an H-1B-aligned career pathway and into middle- or high-skilled jobs.

Through this FOA, the Department aims to address education and training barriers for low- to middle-skilled parents by prioritizing the needs of this targeted population; addressing child care needs for parents seeking education and training; increasing access to child care resources; and bridging the gap between the workforce development and child care systems.

As applicants design their training strategies to meet the needs of working parents, they should consider the delivery methods and scheduling of training as important factors in providing the flexibility that working parents may require for participation in training. This may include adjusting curriculum design to provide flexible course offerings, expanding asynchronous learning options10, or providing online courses. It could also include delivering training through banded schedules to enable parents to accommodate their work schedules and make it easier for working parents to make child care arrangements. Another possibility is the inclusion of training onsite at the workplace, particularly if child care is provided in the same location.

7 Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2015. “Earnings and Unemployment Rates by Educational Attainment.” Washington, DC: US Department of Labor. http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_001.htm 8 Human centered design and customer-centered methodologies are approaches to systems design that consider usability and particularly, the needs and limitations of a system’s users and or customers.

9 The term in loco parentis, "in the place of a parent" refers to the legal responsibility of a person or organization to take on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent.

10 Asynchronous learning options allow students to learn the same material at different times and locations.

Asynchronous Learning is also called Location Independent Learning, and is opposite to synchronous learning where students all learn at the same time through activities such as attending a lecture or laboratory.

An important element of this FOA is the need for communities to address how local areas will help parents navigate complex systems and access the child care services they need. The SWFI grants will provide the platform for strengthening partnerships between systems (workforce training providers and child care providers) to ensure consistency in care and flexibility in services. To support these efforts, applicants are required to leverage cash or in-kind resources amounting to at least 25 percent of the total award.

B. Program Authority

The SWFI grant program is authorized under Section 414(c) of the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998 (ACWIA), as amended (codified at 29 USC 3224a).

Grant awards will be made only to the extent that funds are available. SWFI grants are financed by a user fee paid by employers to bring foreign workers into the United States under the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program.

C. Program Design Elements

Through this FOA, applicants must design programs that comprise the following two primary types of activities: 1) Program Level Activities; and 2) Systems Level Activities. Program design elements of each of these activities are specified in greater detail below:

1. Program Level Activities Program level activities must address individual training needs, provide customized participant supportive services, and lead to job placement in middle- to high-skilled jobs. Grantees must serve low- to middle-skilled individuals with child care needs by providing training and employment opportunities to advance in careers in high-growth and/or in-demand H-1B occupations and industries, including but not limited to Information Technology (IT), healthcare, and advanced manufacturing. Training for participants must either provide entry into, or promote movement along, a career pathway towards higher-wage, middle- to high-skilled jobs. Programs must provide customized participant supportive services, including child care, necessary to support the successful completion of skill enhancement and job placement for the targeted population.

i. Targeted Industries/Occupations In line with the authority provided by Congress under the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act (ACWIA), grants under this program must focus on preparing and placing individuals into jobs within occupations for which H-1B visas have been certified, or other occupations in industries in which a significant number of H-1B visas are certified. Applicants should review the attached list (see Appendix A) of industries that are using H-1B visas to hire foreign workers.

Occupations at the H-1B skills level generally require a bachelor’s degree or comparable experience and are middle- to high-skill level. While program participants do not need to have these educational credentials or skill levels to enter the program, they should receive interventions that lead to job placement during the grant period in middle- and high-skill jobs and grantees must provide information about the career pathway to these jobs.

In addition, programs must propose education and training strategies that support middle-to high-skilled jobs that are high-growth and/or in-demand and:

• Are projected to add substantial numbers of new jobs to the regional economy;

• Have substantial job vacancies currently available;

• Are undergoing transformation by technology and innovation that requires workers to obtain new skill sets; or

• Have a significant impact on the regional economy overall or on the growth of other industries and occupations.

ii. Outreach and Recruitment Program level activities must include strategies for recruiting the proposed target population(s) including plans to provide a cohesive streamlined set of services tailored to meet the training and participant supportive service needs of each individual served.

iii. Assessments

Fundamental to the SWFI approach is the incorporation of individual assessments that allow applicants to customize services that will lead program participants to training completion, employment and job retention. Assessments must provide a comprehensive evaluation of participant training needs and skill deficiencies, and the identification of child care barriers and employment needs that will lead towards a direct set of services, such as short-term, long-term or accelerated training and supportive and/or referral services.

iv. Supportive and Referral Service(s)

Integral to this FOA’s goal is the inclusion of supportive and/or referral services that complement training activities for the targeted population. Applicants therefore must include strategies for incorporating a comprehensive set of supportive and/or referral services based on individual assessment and career counseling in support of family and individual needs. Supportive and referral service strategies should include at a minimum:

• Access to and assistance with tuition or fees for child care services provided during training and job searching. This may include strategies such as non-standard hour care, emergency backup care when standard care options fall through, or care for children with disabilities to ensure safe, reliable and consistent child care services.

To the extent practicable, services delivered by center-based and family child care homes must meet health and safety and other standards, of:

The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), provided the child and family are eligible for or receiving child care assistance through CCDF under the Child Care and Development Block Grant of 2014; or

Head Start, if the child and family are eligible for Head Start services or participating in the program.

• Continuity of child care assistance to ensure stability for families to complete training, or

• An assessment of other participant supportive service needs, such as transportation, financial aid or other resources necessary to attend and complete training including transportation to and from the child care provider site.

v. Program Model/Strategies

Career Pathways Projects must provide individualized career plans for all participants that will help each participant navigate and assess their various career pathway options, identify skills and competencies needed for those occupations, and describe how the education and training provided will place individuals in or along a career pathway within the identified H-1B occupation or industry. Career Pathway programs integrate academic and occupational skills training aligned with employer validated work readiness standards and competencies. The clear sequence of coursework and/or credentials allows progression through a variety of post-secondary credentials that demonstrate marketable skills in various occupations in a particular industry sector. For a full description of Career Pathways please refer to Appendix B, “Definition of Terms.”

Employer engagement is strongly encouraged when developing career pathways for the targeted population, especially when assessing the current and projected job opportunities for training graduates. Engaging employer(s) and/or employer associations ensures that training prepares workers for a range of occupations along a career pathway of the targeted industry, making participants more employable and giving businesses a stronger employee pool. Under this FOA, training along a career pathway may start with entry-level occupations, but must lead to employment in middle- and high-skilled positions in H-1B occupations and industries.

In addition, projects must include viable ways for each participant to pursue a career pathway that may include paid work-based learning models such as Registered Apprenticeships, On-the-Job Training, paid work experience or paid internships, or post-secondary degree or certificate programs that are appropriately matched to the participant’s individual and family needs. (See Appendix B, “Definition of Terms” for expanded definitions of these models.)

Individual assessments provided by staff, such as career counselors, should include determining a customized career pathway to employment, career preparation as well as adequate training that will lead to the identified employment, and stackable and portable industry-recognized credentials, where appropriate. The Department encourages applicants to utilize required employer partnerships in identifying employment skills and opportunities for the targeted population and demonstrating how best to incorporate this into their program design.

Based on individual assessments, projects should provide strategies for placing individuals into training interventions that align with one or more of the following three strategies that also include participant supportive services that address child care and other needs:

(1) Short-term Intensive Training - This strategy is intended to serve unemployed or underemployed parents who need short-term intensive training (such as bootcamp-style programs, online courses, or job specific technical training) that will refresh or upgrade their skills and competencies and may or may not result in an industry-recognized credential, but must provide a clear strategy that will result in job placement. The Department encourages applicants to consider accelerated or intensive competency-based training options that will rapidly train participants efficiently and effectively so they are ready for direct entry into employment. This strategy should aim to shorten the length of time to program completion, credential attainment, and reemployment, where appropriate. Projects may include:

• Integrated employment and training programs that combine basic academic skills with occupational skills training to enable individuals to acquire skills at a faster pace;

• Competency-based training programs designed to give participants credit for skills already developed and allows participants to move through coursework based on the mastery of a set of skills (See Appendix B, “Definition of Terms” for an expanded definition.);

• Innovative programs, such as coding bootcamps or tech-based online course work that develop the mastery of a set of skills for those with minimal technical ability resulting in middle- to high-skilled Information Technology or other related high-growth technology-based occupations; or

• Online course work, or distance learning modules, that builds work-based skills and competencies, accommodates working families, and results in industry-recognized credentials or college credit toward a stackable credential.

(2) Credential-focused Intensive Training – This strategy is intended to serve parents who need intensive (long or short-term) training that improves skills and competencies needed to enter a career pathway, or move along an already-established career pathway, and results in a degree or industry-recognized credential and employment into a middle- to high-skilled H-1B occupation or industry. These strategies must combine education and training with intensive coaching and other specialized services necessary for participant success.

(3) Upskilling Frontline Incumbent Workers – This strategy is intended to serve parents who are frontline incumbent workers (see Appendix B, “Definition of Terms”) in need of training that will lead to career advancement within the same (H-1B-aligned) industry.

Up to 25 percent of individuals served through SWFI programs may be low-skilled frontline incumbent workers who are eligible participants as defined in section III.G.3 Eligible Participants. The purpose of this effort is to provide additional skills and/or credentials for workers to advance in their careers and to assist employers in strengthening the skills of their existing workforce. Applicants proposing to serve frontline incumbent workers must work with employer(s) and employer partners to develop individual skill advancement training or career pathways that are designed to fill existing or projected job vacancies in middle-high skill H-1B occupations and industries.

Applicants proposing incumbent worker training will also need to demonstrate strategies for how they will:

• Collaborate with employers and/or training providers in identifying skill advancement strategies or career pathways; and

• Set goals for each incumbent worker training participant for achieving outcomes such as credential attainment, skills gains, job retention, career advancement, and wage gains.

The Department encourages applicants serving this population to propose activities that include education/training, career counseling and coaching, onsite job experience/exposure, and commitment from employers to provide clear internal opportunities for advancement for incumbent workers.

The Department encourages applicants that propose this strategy to work closely with employer partners to offer a backfill component to be implemented where positions are left open by workers advancing through the upskilling training. This upskill/backfill partnership of training provider and employers should include a strong mutual understanding of the skills needed by entry-level workers, including developing strategies to find, train and place entry-level workers within the company/business and a commitment to share the costs of training existing workers.

vi. Employment and Retention Strategies

Ensuring strong labor market attachment for unemployed, underemployed and frontline incumbent worker training participants is an essential component for a good training model. Applicants must propose program models that incorporate comprehensive plans to provide career pathways counselling, job matching and job placement services, as well as strategies for how each training intervention will lead to middle- or high-skilled jobs and how they will utilize strategic partnerships for the various activities needed to ensure strong labor market attachment upon training completion. If the applicant proposes serving incumbent workers, the applicant must also provide strategies for ensuring job advancement and job retention.

Employment outcomes targets must be included for all training participants, including incumbent workers. (See Section IV.2 for further details on program outcomes.) In addition to employment services for job seekers, applicants will need to propose strategies for tracking participant outcomes post-training as well as job retention for at least three programmatic quarters after they obtain a job.

2. Systems Level Activities A fundamental goal of SWFI is to assist in the removal of child care barriers faced by working parents in need of training to secure better jobs. In support of those objectives, the

Department is interested in funding projects that will simultaneously address both job training needs and child care barriers of low- to middle- skilled parents through individual services and by developing or improving systems navigation services that will result in sustainable systemic change. The Department will support a variety of proposed strategies that will further support local and regional public and private partnerships committed to addressing their identified challenges by implementing or strengthening connections between systems and services.

Systems level activities must simplify and increase access to services and resources that enable low- to middle-skilled individuals with child care needs to participate in and complete training. Grantees must address current systemic challenges by streamlining complex processes which families with child care needs often have to navigate (for example: workforce training services, child care providers and local health and human service agencies) or creating new linkages that increase access and expand child care and participant supportive service options. Applicants are encouraged to establish system navigator roles that will facilitate access to and receipt of services.

The Department is interested in supporting system level strategies that seek to:

• Improve coordination and collaboration amongst workforce development training programs and child care and other early childhood education services (including services funded through TANF, the Child Care and Development Fund, Early Head Start and Head Start) at the local, state and/or Federal level, that foster collaborative efforts, share information and streamline intake for child care assistance and service delivery;

• Build effective community partnerships that leverage public and private resources to better serve individuals with child care needs in overcoming barriers to training and improve employment outcomes;

• Coordinate with existing child care consumer education and referral systems that can facilitate the streamlining of complex services for working families in need of training and child care services, and if no such systems exist, establish a referral system;

• Ensure low-skilled families that are either already in established programs for a service, or need additional services simultaneously, are not put at risk of losing existing benefits and/or services, including child care assistance;

• Encourage training providers, child care providers and employers to work together in assisting the needs of low-skilled and middle-skilled workers with training barriers and child care needs seeking to enter middle- to high-skilled jobs;

• Provide a coordinated set of child care and workforce-related resources and services available at the local, state, and Federal level to ensure that training participants and job seekers with child care needs have access to all of the qualifying programs and services they need;

• Provide linkages through data systems for streamlined referral to community services;

and

• Leverage Federal place-based partnerships such as Promise Zones, Rural Integration Models for Parents and Children to Thrive (IMPACT) Demonstration, and Investing in Manufacturing Partnership Communities, among others.

To facilitate and build effective community partnerships that leverage public and private resources to better serve parents with child care needs and improve employment outcomes, applicants must demonstrate that the proposed project will include coordination with a variety of partners that will significantly impact the removal of the identified barriers and provide a description of all partnerships and how they will be integrated into the project design, including a description of all leveraged services and braided funding proposed to address synchronized training and child care needs. (See Appendix B, “Definition of Terms”, for a definition of braided funding.)

Each applicant must coordinate, at a minimum, with the required partners listed in the required partners section (see Section III.A.2). Additional partners are also encouraged and are listed in Section III.A.3.

II. Award Information

A. Award Type and Amount

Funding will be provided in the form of a grant. Approximately $25 million is expected to be available to fund projects of up to $4 million each. Applicants should request funding that is commensurate with the scope and scale of the project proposed. Rural and smaller communities who may have a need for only moderate amounts of funds (the Department generally expects award amounts of $250,000 or more) are encouraged to apply.

Awards made under this announcement are subject to the availability of Federal funds. In the event that additional funds become available, we reserve the right to use such funds to select additional grantees from applications submitted in response to this announcement.

While this grant investment is intended to offset costs of support services and training, to help ensure a successful project, applicants must secure in leveraged resources an amount equal to at least 25 percent of the total requested funds to support the project’s overall goals and milestones.

Leveraged resources are a critical component of the project design and applicants will be scored based on the strength of these leveraged resources as described in section IV.3.(6)(b), Project Narrative.

B. Period of Performance

The period of performance is 48 months with an anticipated start date of July 2016. This performance period includes: all necessary implementation and start-up activities; the completion of education/training activities and the award of employer- or industry-recognized credentials, if appropriate; placement activities; and participant follow-up for performance outcomes. The Department expects that start-up activities, such as hiring appropriate program staff, project design activities, negotiation and implementation of OJT contracts, paid work experiences, or paid internship opportunities, will begin immediately upon award and that grantees will begin serving participants no later than six months after the date of grant award. We strongly encourage grantees to develop their project work plans and timelines accordingly. Grantees must plan to expend fully all grant funds during the period of performance while ensuring full transparency and accountability for all expenditures.

III. Eligibility Information

In keeping with the authority provided by Congress under Section 414 (c) of ACWIA, grants under this FOA will be awarded to partnerships of public and private sector entities. Grants will be awarded to the lead applicant, which will serve as the grantee and have overall fiscal and administrative responsibility for the grant. To be eligible for funding under this FOA, the application must include the required partners specified below in Section III.A.1, and the lead applicant must meet the eligibility criteria specified in Section III.A.2.

A. Eligible Applicants

1. Required Partners

To be eligible for consideration under this FOA, the application must include at least one partner from each of the following four types of entities (the lead applicant may count as one of these partners if it meets one of the definitions below):

(a) Workforce Entities: Entities involved in administering the public workforce system established under Title I of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA), (including state and local Workforce Development Boards and American Job Center Operators under Section 121 of WIOA and Native American program entities eligible for funds under Section 166 of WIOA (29 U.S.C. 3221)). Any of these types of public or non-profit organizations are eligible to apply as the lead applicant for this FOA.

These organizations have expertise in workforce development and may provide leadership in implementing the following types of activities: 1) understanding and analyzing the need for education and training in the local area, including identifying targeted industries, occupations, regional clusters, hiring needs, and populations to be served, and providing relevant sources of data, including the workforce development board’s strategic plan, labor market information, and other tools or reports; 2) assessing potential participants for the grant program; 3) identifying and referring candidates for education and training in the grant program; 4) providing additional participant supportive services; 5) connecting and placing participants with employers that have job openings; and 6) collecting, tracking, and reporting participant data to

ETA.

(b) Education and Training Providers: For the purposes of this FOA, education and training providers include institutions of higher education as defined in Section 102 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002), joint labor-management training partnerships, non-profit and community-based organizations that offer job training, for-profit organizations that provide job training, and organizations that have been approved as WIOA Eligible Training Providers. While a for-profit education/training provider can be an entity included in the primary partnership, for-profit education/training providers cannot be the lead applicant. Eligible lead applicants must be a public or non-profit organization.

Other eligible training providers include joint labor-management training partnerships, non-profit and community-based and faith-based organizations that offer job training, for-profit organizations that provide job training, and organizations that have been approved as WIOA Eligible Training Providers, such as Registered Apprenticeship programs. These organizations provide a range of customizable and short-term training, competency-based training, and accelerated training (such as “bootcamp” style programs), as well as longer-term training programs that may result in industry-recognized credentials and may include basic skills training, technical skills training, participant supportive services, and workforce development services.

(c) Business Entities: For the purposes of this FOA, the primary partnership must include at least one of the following:

• business-related non-profit organization, which includes trade or industry associations such as local Chambers of Commerce, small business federations, and labor management organizations;

• organization functioning as a workforce intermediary for the expressed purpose of serving the needs of businesses, which may include industry associations;

• consortium of three or more businesses; or

• one or more independent businesses.

While for-profit business entities can be a part of the primary partnership, they cannot be the lead applicant. Any of these organizations can provide expertise on the skills needs of the workplace.

In addition to the primary partnership applicants are required to include at least three employers or an industry association representing at least three employers. These employers or the industry association may also serve as the business entity in the required partnership, as appropriate. For additional information on this requirement, see section IV.B.4.a, Requested Attachments to the Project Narrative.

Businesses and business associations lend their expertise on skills development by: 1) defining the program goals and activities; 2) informing program design; 3) identifying necessary skills and competencies, including those necessary for upskilling their current workers; 4) identifying career pathways; 5) providing resources to support education/training (such as equipment, instructors, funding, internships, Registered Apprenticeship, or OJT and other work-based learning activities); 6) providing assistance with program design and implementation; 7) hiring qualified participants who complete grant-funded education and training programs; and 8) helping to solicit employer feedback on the skills and competencies of workers completing training and placed into employment. Organizations functioning as workforce intermediaries for the expressed purpose of serving the needs of businesses lend their expertise by: 1) having credibility with employers and workers; 2) serving as partner, coordinator, and management services organizations; and, 3) bringing together project partners to plan, govern, manage, and track performance of customized services to program participants and employers.

(d) Child Care and Other Early Childhood Education Services: An agency or organization that administers or funds child care and other early childhood education services or programs, such as entities administering the Child Care and Development Fund, Head Start or Early Head Start (e.g., the Director of the Head Start Collaboration Office), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the state-funded prekindergarten program (if the state funds a preschool program), and child care resource and referral agencies. These entities have expertise regarding the child care needs of families, the availability of existing child care services to ensure coordination, and gaps in the existing supply and delivery of child care services that can be addressed.

Note that while a child care or other early childhood education service agency is a required partner included in the primary partnership, it cannot be the lead applicant.

2. Eligible Lead Applicants

For the purposes of this FOA, the lead applicant must be a public or non-profit entity from one of the following three categories:

(a) Workforce Entities as defined in Section III.A.1.a

(b) Education and Training Providers as defined Section III.A.1.b

(c) Business Entities as defined in Section III.A.1.c

The lead applicant is the legal entity named on the SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance form and will serve as the grantee and have overall fiscal and administrative responsibility for the grant, including responsibility for deliverables and monitoring of partners and sub-grantees. The lead grantee organization will be:

i. The point of contact with DOL to receive and respond to all inquiries or communications under this FOA;

ii. The entity with authority to withdraw or draw down funds through the

Department of Health and Human Services - Payment Management System

(HHS-PMS);

iii. The entity responsible for submitting to DOL all deliverables under the grant, including all technical, financial, and performance reports related to the program, regardless of which partner performed the work;

iv. The entity that may request or agree to a revision or modification of the grant agreement or statement of work;

v. The entity with overall responsibility for carrying out the programmatic functions of the grant, as well as for the stewardship of all expenditures under the grant; and

vi. The entity responsible for establishing subgrant or subcontract relationships with the identified program partners.

3. Optional Partners Applicants are strongly encouraged to collaborate with some of the following entities in addition to the required partners:

State and local governments, including partnering with government agencies such as Vocational Rehabilitation agencies, Child Care agencies, etc.;

Associations representing child care, Head Start, and other early childhood education providers;

Economic development agencies;

Public Housing Authorities;

Foundations and philanthropic organizations; or Community-based, faith-based, or advocacy organizations.

D. Allowable Activities All proposed program costs must be necessary and reasonable and in accordance with applicable Federal regulations, including the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance.

Determinations of allowable costs will be made in accordance with the applicable OMB cost principles. Disallowed costs are those charges to a grant that the grantor agency or its representative determines not to be allowable in accordance with the applicable Federal cost principles or other conditions contained in the grant agreement. Applicants, whether successful or not, will not be entitled to reimbursement of pre-award costs.

Grant funds can be used in accordance with 29 U.S.C. 3224a to: 1) develop, implement, and provide education/job training services; 2) fund participant supportive services (with up to 25 percent of grant funds) that enable participation in such services; and 3) system level activities costs.

Please refer to Section VI of the FOA for a list of relevant regulations, cost principles, administrative and other requirements that apply to this Announcement and to Section IV.E for a discussion of costs that are not allowable under this Announcement.

Applicants may propose to use grant funds for a wide range of allowable program activities that support the direct education and training of eligible participants, including but not limited to the following:

(a) Using individual customized assessments to determine the skills levels, aptitudes, abilities, competencies, integrated participant supportive services, and reemployment needs of the targeted population;

(b) Providing direct education, training, and employment services;

(c) Adapting existing industry-recognized curricula to support direct education and training provided through the grant;

(d) Obtaining accreditation for employer- and/or industry-recognized credentials;

(e) Using subject matter experts from industry, education, and/or other subject-related areas to assist in program design and delivery;

(f) Accessing real-time Labor Market Information (LMI) as it relates to identifying labor market demand, skills transferability, and job openings;

(g) Developing and implementing articulation agreements with Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) and other education and training partners (as appropriate) that allow for recognition of course credits in exchange for the education and/or training provided;

(h) Targeting the proposed population using outreach and recruitment strategies;

(i) Awarding certifications and credentials to participants as a result of the training provided;

(j) Covering participant support service costs that enable a participant to enroll in and complete training, such as child care services; or

(k) Coordinating with or enhancing consumer education or referral services to assist the development of system level activities.

E. Cost Sharing or Matching

Cost sharing or matching funds are not required for this program. Please note that any resources contributed to the project are considered leveraged resources and do not constitute cost sharing or matching funds. Cost sharing or match is not one of the application screening criteria. However, applicants will be scored based on the strength of leveraged resources and these leveraged resources should be considered a critical component of the Project Design. More information on leveraged resources may be found in Section IV.B.3.(6), Project Budget and Budget Justification.

F. Geographic Scope

Applicants may propose to serve a local, regional or multi-regional area within or across state lines. A local area is defined as part or all of a single local Workforce Development Area. A regional area is defined as two or more contiguous local Workforce Development Areas that may or may not cross state lines, such as rural communities collaborating as a partnership for this project. A multi-regional area is defined as two or more non-contiguous local Workforce Development Areas that may or may not cross state lines.

Rural communities are encouraged, though not required, to collaborate through regional partnerships or with other regions to support smaller-scale projects.

G. Other Information

1. Application Screening Criteria

You should use the checklist below as a guide when preparing your application package to ensure that the application has met all of the screening criteria. Note that this checklist is only an aid for applicants and should not be included in the application package. We urge you to use this checklist to ensure that your application contains all required items. If your application does not meet all of the screening criteria, it will not move forward through the merit review process.

Application Requirement Instructions Complete?

The deadline submission requirements are met Section IV.C

If submitted through Grants.gov, the components of the application are saved in any of the specified formats and are not corrupt. (We will attempt to open the document, but will not take any additional measures in the event of problems with opening.)

Section IV.C.

Application does not exceed the ceiling amount of $4,000,000 Section II.A

SAM Registration Section IV.B.1

SF-424, Application for Federal Assistance Section IV.B.1

SF-424 includes a DUNS Number Section IV.B.1

SF-424A, Budget Information Form Section IV.B.2

Budget Narrative Section IV.B.2

Project Narrative Section IV.B.3

Abstract Section IV.B.4

Documentation of Required Partners Commitment in the Public and Private Partnership Section IV.B.4

2. Number of Applications To Be Submitted

Multi…