FOA-ETA-23-15_.pdf

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR: Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants

ANNOUNCEMENT TYPE: Initial

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY NUMBER: FOA-ETA-23-15

CATALOG OF FEDERAL DOMESTIC ASSISTANCE (CFDA) NUMBER: 17.261

KEY DATES: The closing date for receipt of applications under this Announcement is 11/14/2023. We must receive applications no later than 11:59 pm Eastern Time.

Submit all applications in response to this solicitation through https://www.grants.gov. For complete application and submission information, including online application instructions, please refer to Section IV.

On approximately September 12, 2023, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page about the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants FOA will be available at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/grants/apply/find-opportunities. Please check this link frequently for future updates, as additional FAQs may be added. A pre-recorded Prospective Applicant Webinar will also be available at the same link and available for viewing any time after that date. While a review of this Webinar is strongly encouraged to support successful grant applications, it is not mandatory.

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/grants/apply/find-opportunities.

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

I. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

A. PROGRAM PURPOSE

B. PROGRAM AUTHORITY

C. RESULTS-DRIVEN PROJECT DESIGN

D. ALLOWABLE ACTIVITIES

E. GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE

F. TARGET OCCUPATIONS

G. INDUSTRY-RECOGNIZED CREDENTIALS

H. OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER)

I. EVALUATIONS

II. AWARD INFORMATION

A. AWARD TYPE AND AMOUNT

B. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

III. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

A. ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS

B. COST SHARING OR MATCHING

C. OTHER INFORMATION

IV. APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

A. HOW TO OBTAIN AN APPLICATION PACKAGE

B. CONTENT AND FORM OF APPLICATION SUBMISSION

C. SUBMISSION DATE, TIME, PROCESS AND ADDRESS

D. INTERGOVERNMENTAL REVIEW

E. FUNDING RESTRICTIONS

F. OTHER SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

V. APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION

A. CRITERIA

B. REVIEW AND SELECTION PROCESS

VI. AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

A. AWARD NOTICES

B. ADMINISTRATIVE AND NATIONAL POLICY REQUIREMENTS

C. REPORTING

VII. AGENCY CONTACTS

VIII. OTHER INFORMATION

A. WEB-BASED RESOURCES

B. INDUSTRY COMPETENCY MODELS AND CAREER CLUSTERS

C. WORKFORCEGPS RESOURCES

D. SKILLSCOMMONS RESOURCES

IX. OMB INFORMATION COLLECTION

APPENDIX A: RESOURCES ON SECTOR STRATEGIES, EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT,

AND CAREER PATHWAYS

APPENDIX B: RESOURCES ON GAP ANALYSIS AND ADDRESSING ISSUES OF

EQUITY

APPENDIX C: RESOURCES ON CAPACITY BUILDING AND SUSTAINABLE

SYSTEMS CHANGE

APPENDIX D: RESOURCES ON THEORY OF CHANGE

APPENDIX E: SUGGESTED PROJECT WORK PLAN FORMAT

APPENDIX F: RESOURCES ON EVALUATION

OTHER

APPENDIX G: SUGGESTED ABSTRACT FORMAT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL, or the Department, or we), announces the availability of approximately $65,000,000 in grant funds authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, Section 169(c), for the fourth round of the Strengthening Community Colleges (SCC4) Training Grants program.

The purpose of this grant program is to build community colleges’ capacity to meet the skill development needs of employers and equitably support students in obtaining good jobs in in-demand industries. Grantees will enhance sector-based career pathways programs using strategies rooted in evidence and designed to build further evidence on the effectiveness of sector-based career pathways programs in leading to positive employment outcomes. Successful applicants will use the diverse strengths of their SCC Partnership members to accomplish and sustain systems change. The Department anticipates that enhancements funded by this grant program will ultimately benefit a broad range of current and future students at participating institutions, including dislocated workers, employed workers, and new entrants to the workforce.

Participants are defined as the students enrolled in a career pathways program that is being enhanced using SCC4 Program Grant funds.

The Department expects applicants to enhance their ability to help students obtain good jobs, with an emphasis on occupations that pay family-sustaining wages and offer career development opportunities, as expressed in the Good Jobs Principles that the Departments of Labor and https://www.dol.gov/general/good-jobs/principles

Commerce developed jointly in 2022. Applicants for this FOA will advance equity by identifying and addressing equity gaps that directly or indirectly impact labor market outcomes for specific locally underserved communities. Building on existing or emerging sector-based career pathways programs, which evidence shows support employment outcomes, is foundational to the grant program. In designing projects, applicants will choose from among a set of Strategy Options that are primarily based on evidence from previous career pathways initiatives and describe how they will sustain the built capacity of their programs. These elements are described in the FOA’s four core elements:

Sector-Based Career Pathways Programs Good Jobs, Equitable Employment Outcomes, and Student Voice Strategy Options (focused on employer engagement, comprehensive student supports, and academic and training offerings) Sustainable Systems Change

The lead applicant of an SCC Partnership must be a community college that is a public institution as defined in Section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act, and at which the associate degree is primarily the highest degree awarded. The lead may apply as a single institution or as a consortium of two or more colleges in a common labor market area. Consortium members may include community colleges and public and private, non-profit four-year institutions, as defined in Section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act. Institutions that were funded in the first three rounds of SCC as either leads or consortium members may apply as leads or consortium members under this fourth round if they focus on a different industry sector than in prior rounds.

Both single institutions and consortium member applicants will engage partners as follows. A required organizational sector convener will collaboratively meet the workforce needs of multiple sector employers within a given labor market area. Three or more SCC4 employer partners will commit to participating in the identified sector initiative and to supporting the project design. Applicants must partner with the public workforce system and are strongly encouraged to collaborate with a worker organization, labor-management partnership, or labor union partner representing workers, or target populations of students and workers in relevant industry sectors, and with one or more community-based organizations that have successfully engaged the underserved community(ies) targeted in the proposal. Applicants may propose additional optional partners in support of project goals.

All successful applicants will be required to contract with an evaluator to conduct a developmental evaluation and to assist grantees in activities such as documenting outcomes and instituting a Good Jobs and Equitable Employment Outcomes data review and analysis process.

In addition, the Department intends to conduct a national impact evaluation of the fourth round of the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants program to assess the impact of the grant program’s strategies. All successful applicants will be required to participate in the national impact evaluation, if selected for inclusion. Grantees selected for the national impact evaluation will receive, within the first year of the grant, a period of performance extension, as well as additional funding to cover the costs of evaluation-related data collection and additional services during the extension period. Grantees selected will also have access to employment outcomes data, provided through the evaluator’s resources, that might not otherwise be available to them.

I. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

A. PROGRAM PURPOSE

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA, or Announcement) solicits applications for the fourth round of Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants (or SCC4).

The purpose of this grant program is to build community colleges’ capacity to meet the skill development needs of employers and equitably support students in obtaining good jobs in in-demand industries, based on labor market information, using strategies rooted in evidence and designed to build further evidence on the effectiveness of sector-based career pathways programs in leading to positive employment outcomes. They also will use the diverse strengths of their SCC Partnership members to accomplish and sustain systems change. The Department anticipates that enhancements funded by this grant program will ultimately benefit a broad range of current and future students at participating institutions.

This fourth round of Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants builds on early learnings from the initial rounds of SCC grants. All four rounds of SCC grants build on evidence from the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program, which focused on capacity building at community colleges and large-scale systems change within community college consortia. See Appendix A for resources on those grants and other related initiatives.

To contribute to further evidence building, the Department has designed SCC4 to support a national impact evaluation, as described in Section I.I. Evaluations. For example, SCC4 uses a “core components” concept through which applicants will select from specific Strategy Options when designing enhancements to their sector-based career pathways programs. These options have a foundation in evidence (Peck 2021, Appendix A) and build on promising practices from the first round of SCC grants. The options also emphasize employer engagement and student supports with the intention of enhancing community colleges’ capacity to equitably assist students in obtaining good jobs.

To ensure that SCC4 grant projects accomplish the goals of the FOA, the Department will fund applications that address, in their proposals, each of the required SCC4 Core Elements, which, while presented below sequentially, are interrelated and mutually reinforcing:

Core Element 1: Sector-Based Career Pathways Programs Core Element 2: Good Jobs, Equitable Employment Outcomes, and Student Voice Core Element 3: Strategy Options Core Element 4: Sustainable Systems Change

1. Core Element 1: Sector-Based Career Pathways Programs

Under this Announcement, applicants must implement a sector strategy that supports one or more career pathways programs, as described below. Due to the level of effort required to implement such a strategy, the Department encourages but does not require applicants to focus on a single industry sector. Examples of industry sectors include, but are not limited to, advanced manufacturing, information technology, healthcare, clean or renewable energy, transportation, and telecommunications or broadband infrastructure; applicants may propose other locally in-demand sectors while taking into account the good jobs emphasis in Core Element 2. Within a sector, applicants must enhance at least one career pathways program (though they may focus on more than one) to ensure that it includes the skills and credentials needed for placement in good jobs while also ensuring that the skills and credentials are provided in an equitable way. For purposes of this FOA, we use the terms “sector” and “sector-based” interchangeably and refer to the career pathways programs that applicants will enhance as “sector-based career pathways programs.”

In developing a project design for a sector-based career pathways program, applicants will need to ask themselves, “Given our local context and labor market demand, which sector initiatives or emerging sector priorities in our local area should we prioritize to best support the enhancement of a career pathways approach? And which career pathways program(s), aligned with the identified sector initiative, offer the best opportunity to train people for good jobs that have strong local demand and strong potential to address equity gaps in employment outcomes?

Both sector strategies and career pathways programs are recognized as effective in supporting positive employment outcomes for community college students, as highlighted in the studies cited in Appendix A. Emerging evidence also suggests that sector programs can help address racial disparities in employment. A sector strategy is a partnership of multiple employers within an industry that brings together organizations such as educational institutions, economic development agencies, workforce development systems, labor unions, labor-management partnerships, and community organizations to identify and collaboratively meet the workforce needs of that industry within a given labor market. Sector strategies are a key element of a career pathways system, which develops education and training in collaboration with employers to ensure that the end product supports the skills and competencies needed by industry (see resources on sector strategies in Appendix A). While many colleges work with employers through one-on-one relationships, for this FOA, we expect applicants to propose sector strategies that work collaboratively across multiple employers within an identified sector.

A career pathways program offers a clear sequence, or pathway, of education coursework and/or training credentials aligned with employer-validated work readiness standards and competencies. The career pathways approach combines support services and strong employer connections to help participants advance within an industry sector or occupational cluster. It enables individuals to enter and exit training at various levels, with each step on the pathway designed to help them move to the next level and progress over time to higher skills, recognized credentials, and better jobs with higher pay. See also the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act's (WIOA) definition of career pathways identified in WIOA Section 3(7). For the purposes of this FOA, DOL expects that applicants will enhance an existing or emerging career pathways program, rather than developing a new one from the start. An emerging career pathways program is defined as one that is under development and will enroll students within eight months of the grant start date (i.e., by Fall 2024). We describe Enhancement Strategy Options and define selected terms in Core Element 3 and provide definitions in Appendix C.

A key aim of a sector-based approach is to ensure that workers are placed and succeed in jobs that meet employers’ needs. While nonprofit entities have tended to lead the sector programs evaluated to date, community colleges, especially in partnership with the local workforce system, are well positioned to incorporate key features of such programs, such as cultivating deep sector expertise and strengthening their industry partnerships; developing education and training that leads to higher-level credentials for better paying jobs at the outset and that targets occupations and industries offering higher potential for wage growth over time; and connecting to sector https://www.congress.gov/113/bills/hr803/BILLS-113hr803enr.pdf partners, such as the required local workforce system partner and labor organization, as well as community-based organizations, to provide comprehensive wrap-around and support services, such as transportation vouchers, childcare assistance, and tuition assistance, and career or college navigation (Strawn et al. 2021, Schaberg 20202, Appendix A).

Accordingly, this FOA will fund projects that seek to improve participants’ labor market outcomes by embedding enhanced career pathway programs into emerging or existing sector strategies. Specifically, successful applicants will propose projects that undertake the following activities that support a sector-based career pathways program model:

Convene or partner with an emerging or existing sector initiative. Applicants must serve as the sector convener or partner with a sector convener. Sector conveners may be a trade/industry association, the lead applicant or consortium member, a local Workforce Board, a Chamber of Commerce, a labor-management partnership, or a similar industry-focused organization involved in developing strong sector initiatives. The Department encourages applicants to focus on a single industry sector. Applicants may propose multiple career pathways programs within one industry sector.

Partner with employers in the identified sector strategy. To ensure that pathways align closely with employer needs and connect participants to good jobs, applicants must partner directly with at least three employers that participate or commit to participating in the identified sector initiative. Grantees should plan to engage additional employers throughout the life of the grant, as part of the sector-based strategy. We encourage applicants to partner with employers that already offer quality jobs or are actively working to increase the job quality of their positions, including those with family-sustaining wages, benefits, and opportunities for advancement, among other indicators of good jobs. Moreover, for industry partnerships to play a transformational role in meeting colleges’ equitable employment goals, colleges must deepen their engagement—at the strategic level—with employers at all stages of project design and implementation.

Specifically, grantees are expected to engage employers by establishing organizational structures that will continue despite turnover among individual faculty members and employer representatives.

Partner with one or more public workforce development system partners. The public workforce development system can also play a critical role in developing innovative and sustainable career pathways programs and systems. Research shows that partnerships with the public workforce development system have the potential to bolster community colleges’ efforts to recruit prospective students (including underserved populations of students), provide persistence and completion supports to students, develop data sharing agreements, and create statewide policies and practices to support adult learners, among other benefits (Eyster et al. 2020, Appendix A). Hence, applicants are required to partner with one or more public workforce development system partners. The Department encourages applicants to consider the state's/region’s workforce priorities when developing their program design to support sustainability and alignment.

Collaborate with one or more worker-focused organizations. The Department recognizes the important and central role that worker organizations, labor-management partnerships, and labor unions fill to ensure that career pathways result in good jobs that support worker voice, safety, and benefits. The Department strongly encourages partnership with these organizations to ensure effective career pathways programs that will lead to good jobs. This partnership may occur in conjunction with employer partners or through separate outreach efforts. This partnership also supports workforce needs through a dual-customer approach; these intermediary organizations provide a direct link to many training opportunities, while also providing worker input into local and regional training needs and solutions. Such organizations can also help translate the capacity-building efforts of community colleges into direct training pathways and access to the targeted populations that the project seeks to benefit through the identified equity strategies.

Collaborate with community-based organizations. The Department also strongly encourages applicants to collaborate with community-based organizations that have successfully engaged the underserved population(s) and community(ies) targeted in the proposal to successfully address equity gaps. Organizations with deep local connections and/or a focus on underserved populations can help colleges alleviate some of the barriers to employment that such communities often face by providing--with contextual understanding--a range of services, including proactive and ongoing recruitment and outreach; information related to basic needs; comprehensive, wrap-around supports; and job placement and post-placement support, including career retention, advancement, and reemployment services. In addition, organizations that have long-term relationships with employers and deep knowledge of in-demand sectors can help colleges strengthen their employer engagement strategies.

See Section III.A.3. Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants Partnership (SCC Partnership) for more information.

2. Core Element 2: Good Jobs, Equitable Employment Outcomes, and Student Voice

Evidence-based workforce strategies such as career pathways and sector strategies, when appropriately designed and implemented, can increase the quality of jobs that program participants enter and close equity gaps among program participants.

In determining a project design for this Announcement, applicants will need to ask themselves, “Which occupations pay family-sustaining wages in the local community and lead to career progression? What are the critical equity gaps for underserved populations locally that impact employment in those occupations, as well as the education that supports employment opportunities? Why do those gaps exist? What practices, policies, rules, and processes are needed to increase our capacity to support good jobs and equitable employment for our underserved communities? What does the available evidence say about interventions that are likely to be successful at this?"

Good Jobs

Good jobs (or quality jobs) are the foundation of an equitable economy that lifts workers and families and makes businesses more competitive. Good jobs are at the center of the Biden/Harris Administration’s workforce priorities – and at the heart of this FOA. Equitable economies place attention on the needs of workers who have faced and continue to face exclusion, marginalization, and discrimination. As many employers recognize, providing good jobs creates a clear competitive advantage when it comes to employee recruitment, retention, and execution of a company’s mission. A good job helps workers achieve economic stability and mobility, while prioritizing diversity and worker voice. To this end, the Departments of Labor and

Commerce jointly identified in 2022 eight key Good Jobs Principles. Two related resources for workforce system partners, policymakers, and practitioners are the Department of Labor’s Good Jobs Initiative site, Training and Employment Guidance Letter No. 07-22, and the Department’s High Road to the Middle Class map tool.

For the purposes of this FOA, applicants must specifically focus on training for occupations that pay family-sustaining wages and provide skills and career advancement, as expressed in the seventh and eighth Good Jobs Principles:

Pay. All workers are paid a stable and predictable living wage, as determined by the local area cost of living, before overtime, tips, and commissions. Workers’ pay is fair, transparent, and equitable (i.e., workers with similar skills and experience are paid the same wage for the same work). Workers’ wages grow commensurate with increased skills and experience.

Skills and Career Advancement. Workers have equitable opportunities and tools to progress to future jobs. Workers have transparent promotion or advancement opportunities. Workers have access to high-quality occupational training, such as on-the-job training (OJT), and continuing education opportunities.

Applicants are not required to address the remaining six Good Jobs Principles in their application, but the Department strongly encourages doing so to embed job quality in the overall project design.

Applicants will find tools to identify occupations that pay or lead to family-supporting wages in Section I.F. Target Occupations. We encourage applicants to coordinate with local business services teams at American Job Centers or other local, regional, or state business and economic development partners to support the identification of, and partnership with, employers within the identified career pathways program sector that are already offering quality jobs or are actively working to increase the job quality of their positions. Applicants may use their sector partnership to assist employer partners in the following ways: providing technical assistance materials to support job quality or ensure compliance with nondiscrimination laws; establishing peer coaching, counseling, and worksite mentoring programs; creating, expanding, or enhancing Registered Apprenticeships, internships, and other work experiences, including subsidies of apprentice and intern wages; and creating customized training programs, among other efforts that can support skill and career progression and family-sustaining wages.

Equitable Employment Outcomes for Underserved Populations

Pursuant to Executive Order 14091, applicants for this FOA will advance equity by identifying and addressing equity gaps that directly or indirectly impact labor market outcomes for locally underserved communities.

As defined in Executive Order 14091, the term “equity” means the consistent and systematic treatment of all individuals in a fair, just, and impartial manner, including individuals who belong to communities that have often been denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, Indigenous and Native American, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander persons and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; women and girls;

LGBTQI+ persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; persons who live in United States Territories; persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality; and individuals who belong to multiple such communities. The term “underserved https://www.dol.gov/general/good-jobs/principles https://www.dol.gov/general/good-jobs https://www.dol.gov/general/good-jobs https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/tegl-07-22 https://www.dol.gov/general/good-jobs/high-road-to-the-middle-class?_ga=2.71909779.1843247258.1690385623-1378931137.1690385623 https://www.dol.gov/general/good-jobs/principles https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/02/22/2023-03779/further-advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal communities” refers to those populations as well as geographic communities that have been systematically denied the opportunity to participate fully in aspects of economic, social, and civic life, as defined in Executive Order 13985, and Executive Order 14020.

In the context of this Announcement, an “equity gap” refers to significant and persistent inequity or disparity in the employment opportunities offered to individuals who belong to one or more underserved communities.

The following demographic groups included in Executive Order 14091 are also included in DOL’s Workforce Integrated Performance System (WIPS) and will be used for the purposes of this FOA to track progress toward reducing equity gaps: American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Female, individuals with disabilities, and low-income individuals (using the WIOA definition of low-income identified in WIOA Section 3(36)).

In determining proposed equity gap(s), applicants must choose at least one category from the WIPS list, consistent with local equity gaps, on which to focus. It is the Department's intention to review participant outcomes reported in WIPS, with respect to whether equity gaps are narrowing, for the purposes of providing technical assistance and as part of the national impact evaluation. Applicants may also choose to target additional populations in Executive Order 14901 that are not on the WIPS list, which they will track internally.

The Department encourages applicants to align with efforts that their states and local communities are undertaking as part of the Perkins V Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA). The CLNA requires recipients to conduct a needs assessment every two years to ensure that their career and technical education programs are meeting the needs of learners, educators, and employers. Stakeholders can use the CLNA process to develop interventions that improve equity. See Appendix B for more information.

Student Voice

Authentic engagement with students is a critical feature that supports both good jobs principles and equity initiatives (Wallerstein 2005, Appendix B). Applicants are required to describe how they will incorporate student feedback loops throughout the grant to support quality career pathways development that meets the needs of students. For example, including student voice in program design can inform the development of, or connection to, supportive services to ensure that they are relevant, accessible, and provided in an equitable way.

Assessing Good Jobs and Equitable Employment Impacts

Successful applicants must institute a data review and analysis process at least annually, with the assistance of the grantee-contracted developmental evaluator, related to the impact of Core Element 2. This annual process will address two key areas:

1. To determine whether the jobs that participants are being trained for and enter into pay family-sustaining wages and offer skills and career advancement. This data review and analysis will help grantees build the capacity to undertake this type of analysis, understand whether they are training participants for good jobs, and make data-informed project management decisions with respect to training for good jobs.

2. To determine whether successful applicants are reducing their targeted equity gaps. The purpose is to help grantees build the capacity to do this type of analysis, understand https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/03/08/executive-order-on-establishment-of-the-white-house-gender-policy-council/ https://www.congress.gov/113/bills/hr803/BILLS-113hr803enr.pdf whether they are reducing equity gaps that directly or indirectly impact labor market outcomes for locally underserved communities, and make data-informed project management decisions with respect to addressing those equity gaps.

3. Core Element 3: Strategy Options

Building on the foundation of evidence for one or more emerging or developed sector-based career pathways programs as described in Core Element 1, and in support of Good Jobs, Equitable Employment Outcomes, and Student Voice as described in Core Element 2, applicants must incorporate into their project design evidence-based or promising Strategy Options as described below.

In designing the project, applicants will need to ask themselves, “Which Strategy Options will enable us to achieve positive employment outcomes in good jobs and close or reduce identified equity gaps for local underserved communities?”

To guide applicants in proposing project designs that aim to achieve positive employment outcomes, DOL has identified Strategy Options that evidence shows may influence career pathways program impact. Most of these strategies are drawn from the Career Pathways Descriptive & Analytical Project Meta-Analysis (Peck et al. 2021, Appendix A), with a smaller number added based on evidence or promise in TAACCCT studies (see Appendix A) and emerging promise from the first round of SCC grantees. These Strategy Options fall within three high-level groupings: Employer Engagement, Comprehensive Supports, and Academic and Training Offerings. For the purposes of this FOA, the Department is emphasizing Employer Engagement and Comprehensive Supports. As discussed in Table 1 below, applicants must select at least one strategy within each of Groups A, B, and C to undertake using grant funds. We encourage applicants to select additional strategies from Groups A and B to further the potential impact of the enhanced career pathways program(s), which they may undertake using grant funds and/or leveraged resources. The strategies selected also must align with the required theory of change (see Section I.C.1) in terms of how the strategy relates to achieving employment outcomes in good jobs and closing or reducing identified equity gaps. Applicants must make a clear connection between the strategies that they choose and the desired outcomes of “good jobs” and “equity gap reduction” in their project narrative (Sections IV.B.3.c.iii. and iv).

Table 1. Strategy Options

GROUP A: EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT

Strategies A1-A6 are allowable enhancements for the required sector-based career pathway program(s) using grant funds or leveraged resources. Applicants must select at least one of strategies A1-A6 to incorporate into their sector-based career pathway program, and we encourage them to select more than one, to be undertaken by one or more members of the SCC Partnership (see Section III.A. Eligible Applicants).

A1: Improve current process of obtaining and incorporating ongoing sector-wide employer input on curriculum and program development.

A2: Put in place job development staff. May include preemployment services, such as sector orientation, career readiness, and career advancement coaching; and postemployment services, designed to help new workers persist in their jobs and advance in their careers, such as ongoing coaching and reemployment assistance, if needed.

A3: Establish employer commitments to interview qualified candidates.

A4: Establish or strengthen employer-offered, paid, work-based learning opportunities, including internships, Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs), co-ops, or others.

A5: Serve as Registered Apprenticeship Sponsor or Intermediary for a RAP developed or enhanced under the grant.

A6: Provide leveraged employer resources, including instructors, financial aid, mentors, equipment, funding, or other in-kind support.

GROUP B: COMPREHENSIVE SUPPORTS

Strategies B1-B4 are allowable enhancements for the required sector-based career pathways program(s) using grant funds or leveraged resources. Applicants must select at least one of B1-B4 to incorporate into their sector-based career pathways program, and we encourage them to select more than one, to be undertaken by one or more members of the SCC Partnership.

B1: Provide Navigation/Coaching Services, which may include supportive case management, counseling, career navigation, college navigation, or other one-on-one or group support designed to help students succeed throughout the career pathway.

B2: Provide wrap-around/support services or benefits, which may include stipends, emergency assistance, food assistance, internet, tutoring assistance, child/dependent care assistance, transportation assistance, healthcare (including mental health services), and tuition or training costs, and advising on public benefits such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, among other services.

B3: Collaborate with community-based organization(s) that are meaningfully engaged with the underserved population(s) and community(ies) targeted in the proposal to provide the navigation/coaching services listed in B1 and/or the wrap-around/support services or benefits listed in B2.

B4: Collaborate with a worker organization, labor-management partnership, or labor union representing workers, or target populations of students and workers in relevant industry sectors, that have successfully engaged the underserved community(ies) targeted in the proposal to ensure that the sector-based career pathways result in good jobs that support worker voice, safety, and benefits.

GROUP C: ACADEMIC AND TRAINING OFFERINGS

Strategies C1-C3 below are allowable enhancements for the required sector-based career pathways program(s) using grant funds or leveraged resources. Applicants must select at least one of C1-C3 to incorporate into their sector-based career pathways program, and may select more than one, to be undertaken by one or more members of the SCC Partnership.

C1: Enhance non-credit to credit articulation. May include strategies such as designing noncredit certificates to function as on-ramps to degree programs; making noncredit programs credit-worthy using such “bridge tools” as articulation agreements, competency-based education, and prior learning assessments; converting noncredit into credit-based programs though accreditation; and ensuring that credits in the same field are transferable and portable. (See ESG 2020, Appendix A)

C2: Incorporate paid work-based learning, such as internships, cooperative education experiences, Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs), pre-apprenticeships, or other approaches, in institution’s curriculum or program designs.

C3: Provide hands-on training in-person or virtually, such as through technology-enabled simulations.

Strategies C4-C7 are additional optional enhancements for the required sector-based career pathway program(s). Applicants may include, but are not required to include, any of these strategies. Note that, while strategies C4-C7 are allowable for SCC4, the Department expects grantees to leverage existing college infrastructure and/or other funding sources to cover the costs of these strategies, where feasible.

C4: Provide integrated education and career-focused training programs that offer accelerated and contextualized foundational skills instruction. Contextualized foundational skills instruction embeds traditional academic content (e.g., reading, writing, mathematics) within technical coursework, e.g., within courses in a selected program(s) of study. This model often occurs in tandem with a co-requisite or concurrent model of instruction, which involves simultaneous enrollment of students in remedial and college-level coursework. Grantees may also wish to consider braiding SCC funds with Adult Education and Family Literacy Act grant funding to support integrated education and training and bridge programs for adult learners.

C5: Implement competency-based education/assessment. In this outcomes-oriented approach, colleges assess and certify student mastery of learning outcomes through observational methods, such as task performance, exams, demonstrations, or other direct measures of proficiency. Students earn credentials based on the mastery of specific competencies as demonstrated through performance-based assessments.

C6: Implement or enhance credit for prior learning/prior learning assessments. This process involves an evaluation of skills and knowledge acquired from prior coursework or outside the classroom (i.e., the workplace) for the purpose of recognizing mastery against a given set of standards, competencies, or learning outcomes.

C7: Provide flexible instruction, including online, hybrid, flexible sequencing, courses offered at multiple locations and/or times, modularized curricula, block scheduling, cohort scheduling, and self-paced learning.

4. Core Element 4: Sustainable Systems Change

Applicants must design a strategy that incorporates sustainable systems changes from the start.

“Sustainable systems change alters a sufficient number of key drivers (incentives, rules, etc.)

such that the system that once perpetuated a ‘problem’ now instead perpetuates a ‘solution.’ This has implications on the way projects are designed and implemented” (Woltering, L. et al. 2019, Appendix C)

In determining a project design for this Announcement, applicants will need to ask themselves, “How can we ensure that the systems changes we make are institutionalized and sustained over the long term? What does the available evidence say about the strategies that will more likely lead to sustainable systems change that perpetuates solutions?”

Sustainable systems change within the context of this FOA means that changes are made to policies, rules, procedures, and practices that impact sector-based career pathways program(s), to ensure equitable access to good jobs. Specifically, systems change for the purpose of equity seeks to make structural changes to the way a college operates and its culture, rather than focusing efforts on addressing perceived student deficits.

A key lesson from TAACCCT is that “embedding collaboration as a core element of an initiative” can help community colleges implement their systems change and capacity-building efforts (Eyster et al. 2020, p. xiii, Appendix A). Primary stakeholders in this collaboration include industry and employers, the public workforce development system, other institutions of higher education, community-based organizations, labor unions and labor-management partnerships, and the departments and offices internal to community colleges.

All applicants must describe in their Project Narrative and their comprehensive work plan how they will sustain the built capacity and systems change they used to advance equitable employment and educational outcomes during their SCC4 grant. This may include milestones demonstrating new or updated institutional policies or rules, new approaches or practices for employer engagement, elimination of process barriers to student access, new institutionalized ways of supporting students, new methods of instructional design and delivery, and new and continuing funding formulas and streams. Note that accomplishments or innovations that support a broader agenda—in particular, those that align with the strategic priorities of the institution (e.g., Equity Plan, Strategic Plan, etc.), other community college reform efforts, or state or local workforce development system priorities—have a greater likelihood of being sustained.

There is a vast literature on systems theory and what constitutes a system. In general, systems are a collection of interacting, interdependent parts that function as subsystems, networks, and overlapping or nested components (Foster-Fishman & Behrens 2007, Appendix C). In this FOA, we use "systems change" to refer to "an intentional process designed to alter the status quo by shifting and realigning the form and function of a targeted system" (Foster-Fishman et al. 2007,

p. 197, Appendix C).

Open Educational Resources (OER): To further support the capacity-building and sustainability aspects of this grant, SCC requires that all new intellectual property, including all digital content developed using SCC grant funds, be openly licensed for free use, adaptation, and improvement by others. Applicants will build upon and contribute to the body of OER and continue to create technology-driven innovations in career training and education, by openly licensing all work under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY) license. See Section IV.E.

for more information on the CC BY license. As part of the requirement to publicly license grant-funded products, grantees must post their products (with the CC BY license affixed) to a public distribution platform. Grantees may post products to www.SkillsCommons.org or to other sites, such as those referenced by Creative Commons.

B. PROGRAM AUTHORITY

http://www.SkillsCommons.org https://creativecommons.org/about/platform

Section 169(c) of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) authorizes this program. See also Title I of Division H of Pub. L. 117-328, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, December 29, 2022.

C. RESULTS-DRIVEN PROJECT DESIGN

Applicants must design and implement a work plan to support results-driven outcomes and report findings. A results-driven project design connects its theory of change, strategies, and intended capacity building milestones to a framework that explicitly lays out the logical connections for how the project will support students in equitably obtaining good jobs. This approach gives successful applicants a process to systematically assess their progress and performance and the opportunity to learn from and improve their projects over time based on data that their projects generate over the grant’s life.

The applicant’s design process must include the following components. Section IV.B.3. Project Narrative indicates whether to provide this required information in the Project Narrative or as a separate attachment.

1. Theory of Change

A theory of change is a graphic illustration of the project’s overall vision and the relationships between a project’s identified problem (including the need to build capacity for good jobs and reduce equity gaps), capacity needs and community assets, influential factors, assumptions, strategies, and outcomes. A theory of change, in combination with a comprehensive work plan, is an effective tool to assist in project planning, implementation, management, evaluation, and reporting. Evidence supports positive connections between project success and the use of theories of change (Kellogg Foundation, Appendix D).

A sample format of the Theory of Change can be found in Appendix D, and an Excel version is available on the grants.gov FOA page, under Related Documents. The sample format includes examples of outcomes. Note that these examples are for illustrative purposes only. Applicants must develop outcomes that are specific to their grant.

After award, grantees will be expected to further refine and develop their theory of change model based on their learnings and supported by their required, contracted evaluator.

2. Project Work Plan, Capacity Building, and Grantee Accountability

Applicants must present a comprehensive project work plan demonstrating a cohesive, well-designed approach to implementing the project that is realistic and measurable. A comprehensive work plan for the purposes of this FOA will include, but not be limited to, high-level, key implementation steps for each of the following project components:

Sector-Based Career Pathways Programs Good Jobs, Equitable Employment Outcomes, and Student Voice Strategy Options Participant Tracking Developmental Evaluation Open Educational Resource Content Development and Posting Linked Open Data Credentials

Granted-Funded Special Purpose Equipment and/or Altered Space (if needed)

Each of these is explained further elsewhere and listed in the sample work plan in Appendix E.

Key implementation steps must address start and due dates, specific responsible entities, and milestones, including those that are evidence of sustainable systems change achievements (see Core Element 4, Section I.A Program Purpose) for each of the above project component areas.

The Department will review implementation progress on the work plans quarterly for technical assistance purposes, and annually for performance monitoring and compliance purposes.

Significant changes to the project work plan may require a grant amendment. Grantees will report implementation progress on the work plan using the Quarterly Narrative Report. See Section VI.C for information on this DOL reporting requirement.

If needed, DOL will work with the awarded grantees to clarify work plan annual milestones early in the grant process. This may include clarifying which annual milestones will be monitored/measured for grant purposes, and which will be tracked internally by the grantee.

A sample format of the project work plan can be found in Appendix E, and an Excel version is available on the grants.gov FOA page, under Related Documents. Examples of key implementation steps appear in the sample format. Note that these examples are for illustrative purposes only. Applicants must develop key implementation steps that are specific to their grant.

3. Participant Tracking and Outcomes

To further define the benefits of SCC4 capacity-building efforts, all applicants must make a clear connection, in the Project Narrative and their Theory of Change, between the strategies they choose and the desired outcomes of “good jobs” and “equity gap reduction” for the local underserved community(ies) they are targeting.

Grantees will report progress toward equitable employment and educational outcomes by tracking participant enrollment, completion, and credential attainment in career pathways program(s) enhanced with grant funding, with accompanying demographic information. DOL will utilize the Department’s Workforce Integrated Performance System (WIPS) to determine employment outcomes for reported participants (see Section VI.C Reporting); further, the Department intends to provide grantees selected for the impact evaluation, via the national impact evaluator, with additional employment outcome data (see Section I.I. Evaluation). While applicants are not required to set participant targets, they must estimate the number of anticipated participants in each career pathways program proposed for grant-funded enhancements and provide a comprehensive plan for participant data collection. Progress toward advancing equitable outcomes will be reviewed for technical assistance, but not monitoring, purposes.

Successful SCC4 applicants must take the following steps to fulfill the Participant Tracking requirement. Technical assistance will be provided to support these steps.

By Month 9 of the grant, hire or assign a Data Assistant or Coordinator responsible for ensuring accurate data products and consistent participant tracking procedures

By Month 12 of the grant, develop, pilot and finalize data collection procedures and tools By Month 12 of the grant, begin enrolling and tracking participants By Month 14 of the grant, begin conducting data quality checks

Informed by the theory of change and guided by the FOA objectives of supporting students in equitably obtaining good jobs, project implementers and their partners should use the comprehensive work plan to…