taaccct-sga-dfa-py-11-08.pdf

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration Notice of Availability of Funds and Solicitation for Grant Applications for Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants Program

Announcement Type: Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA) Funding Opportunity Number: SGA/DFA PY 11-08 Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 17.282

Key Dates: The closing date for receipt of applications under this announcement is May 24, 2012.

Applications must be received no later than 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. A pre-recorded webinar will be on-line (http://www.workforce3one.org) and accessible for viewing on March 9, 2012, and will be available for viewing anytime after that date. While a review of this webinar is encouraged, it is not mandatory that applicants view this recording. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) will be posted to the Employment and Training Administration’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants Program (TAACCCT) website at http://www.doleta.gov/taaccct no later than March 2, 2012. Please check the TAACCCT website frequently for future updates.

Addresses: Mailed applications must be addressed to the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Grants Management, Attention: Donna Kelly, Grant Officer, Reference SGA/DFA PY 11-08, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Room N4716, Washington, DC 20210. For complete application and submission information, including online application instructions, please refer to section IV.

Summary: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL or the Department) announces the availability of up to $500 million in grant funds to be awarded under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program. The TAACCCT grant program provides eligible institutions of higher education, as defined in section 102 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002), with funds to expand and improve their ability to deliver education and career training programs that can be completed in two years or less, and are suited for workers who are eligible for training under the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for Workers Program (“TAA-eligible workers”) of the Trade Act of 1974 (as amended) 19 U.S.C. 2271-2323, as well as other adults. Eligible institutions may be located in the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or the U.S. territories; however, the competitiveness of institutions in the U.S.

territories under this SGA may be impacted by their limited opportunity to serve TAA–eligible workers. Although the Department expects that a wide range of individuals will benefit from the TAACCCT program, the primary intent is to meet the educational or career training needs of workers who have lost their jobs or are threatened with job loss as a result of foreign trade.

The Department intends to fund multi-year grants to eligible institutions for either developing new education and career training program strategies or for replicating existing evidence-based design, development, and/or delivery strategies for such programs. As a result of this Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA), the Department is helping to ensure that our nation’s institutions of higher education are able to help TAA-eligible workers and other adults succeed in acquiring the skills, degrees, and credentials needed for high-wage, high-skill employment while also meeting the needs of employers for skilled workers.

In accordance with the TAACCCT requirement that each state receive at least 0.5 percent of the approximately $500 million total amount of funds available under this SGA, the Department intends to fund grants of $2.5 to $3.0 million to applicants from each State, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. In addition to grants of $2.5 to $3.0 million to individual applicants, the Department intends to fund grants of $5 million to $15 million to consortium applicants that propose programs that will impact TAA-eligible workers and other adults across a state, region or regions, industry sector or cluster of related industries. Eligible institutions that received individual grants or were the “lead institution” under the Solicitation for Grant Applications for TAACCCT Grants http://www.doleta.gov/taaccct

Program Funding Opportunity Number: SGA/DFA PY 10-03, dated January 20, 2011, are not eligible to apply for grants under this SGA.

For more information and updates about the TAACCCT grant program, please visit:

www.doleta.gov/TAACCCT.

ADDRESSES: Mailed applications must be addressed to the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Division of Federal Assistance, Attention: Donna Kelly, Grant Officer, Reference SGA/DFA PY 11-08, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Room N-4716, Washington, DC 20210. For complete “Application and Submission Information,” please refer to Section IV.

CONTENTS: This solicitation consists of nine (9) sections:

Section I provides a description of this funding opportunity.

A. Overview of the Grant Program B. Core Elements of TAACCCT Projects C. Third-Party Evaluation of Project D. Program Requirements E. Allowable Activities

Section II provides award information.

A. Award Amount B. Period of Performance

Section III provides eligibility information.

A. Eligible Institutions B. Consortium Applicants C. Eligible Participants D. Leveraged Expertise E. Other Grant Specifications

Section IV provides information on the application and submission process.

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

Section V describes the criteria against which applications will be reviewed and explains the proposal review process.

A. Evaluation Criteria B. Review Criteria for Program Evaluation Component C. Review and Selection Process

Section VI describes award administration information.

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

Section VII provides agency contacts.

Section VIII provides additional resources of interest to applicants.

A. Web-Based Resources B. Industry Competency Models C. Evaluation Resources D. Workforce3One Resources

Section IX provides other information.

http://www.doleta.gov/TAACCCT

I. Funding Opportunity Description A. Overview of the Grant Program

In an increasingly competitive world economy, America’s economic strength depends upon the education and skills of its workers. In the coming years, jobs requiring at least an Associate’s degree are projected to grow twice as fast as those requiring no college experience. The nation needs workers with the education and skills to succeed in fast growing high-wage occupations, and community colleges serve as significant and rapidly growing contributors to the nation’s higher education system. Community colleges work with business, labor, and government in their communities to create tailored education and training programs to meet employers’ needs and give students the skills required to obtain good jobs, earn family-sustaining wages, and advance along a career pathway.

The college graduation goals recently set by President Barack Obama and the need to increase the number of workers who attain degrees, certificates, and other industry-recognized credentials are, in part, addressed by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Reconciliation Act), Public Law No. 111-152, 19 USC 2372 – 2372a, which appropriated $2 billion for Fiscal Years (FY) 2011 – 2014 ($500 million annually) for the TAACCCT grant program. The TAACCCT program provides grants to eligible institutions to expand and improve their ability to deliver education and career training programs that can be completed in two years or less, are suited for TAA-eligible workers, and prepare participants in grant-funded programs for employment in high-wage, high-skill occupations. The Department expects that successful applicants will propose projects that expand and improve their ability to deliver education and training programs and achieve improved education and employment outcomes, rather than simply offering their existing courses to more workers and other students. The Department is implementing this program in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education.

The overarching goals of this SGA are to: (1) increase attainment of certifications, certificates, diplomas, and other industry-recognized credentials to better prepare TAA-eligible workers and other adults for high-wage, high-skill employment or re-employment in growth industry sectors; (2) introduce innovative and effective methods for curriculum development and delivery that address specific industry needs and lead to improved learning outcomes and retention rates for TAA-eligible workers and other adults; and (3) demonstrate, for TAA-eligible workers in particular, improved employment outcomes as a result of the funded program.

The Department is committed to funding applications that will use data and evidence to: (1) design strategies that are likely to produce significant positive change in learning and employment outcomes; (2) continuously evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies in order to improve their programming; and (3) identify and integrate promising and proven strategies into their education and training programs. The Department expects that the TAACCCT grant program will contribute to the field of research on community college practices through the development and evaluation of innovative program models that provide workers with education and skills to succeed in high-wage, high-skill occupations.

Furthermore, the Department is interested in encouraging the development of accessible online learning strategies that can effectively serve TAA-eligible workers and other adults. Online learning strategies can allow adults who are struggling to balance the competing demands of work and family to acquire new skills at a time, place and pace that are convenient for them. For example, these strategies can improve access to quality education for TAA-eligible workers and other adults in underserved areas and have the potential to help them learn more in less time than they would with traditional classroom instruction alone. The Department strongly encourages consortium applicants to propose programs that reach large and diverse audiences across broad geographic areas and maximize resources available through this program.

All successful applicants must allow broad access for others to use and enhance project products and offerings, including authorizing for-profit derivative uses of the courses and associated learning materials by licensing newly developed materials produced with grant funds with a Creative Commons Attribution License (CCBY). This license allows subsequent users to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the copyrighted work and requires such users to attribute the work in the manner specified by the Grantee. The Department will ensure that deliverables developed with these funds are publicly available. See Section I.D.5 for more information on intellectual property rights and CCBY. Applicants must identify the specific intellectual property deliverables that will be developed through the project, such as books, courses, modules, seminars, tutoring systems, simulations, etc., and must specify the expected date to be delivered to the Department (as specified in Section V.A.3.i).

Applicants must conduct a community outreach process to gather information on relevant entities in at least one community where programs will be offered to determine education and training gaps, as described in Section V.A.1.iii. The outreach will ensure that the project is suited to meet the education and training needs of TAA-eligible workers; complements and/or leverages existing programs; and does not duplicate current community efforts.

Finally, all successful applicants must use grant funds to implement an appropriate third-party evaluation of the project.

B. Core Elements for TAACCCT Projects

To ensure that TAACCCT projects accomplish the goals stated above in Section I.A, the Department is committed to funding applications that incorporate the following five Core Elements:

1. Evidence-Based Design;

2. Stacked and Latticed Credentials;

3. Online and Technology-Enabled Learning;

4. Transferability and Articulation; and

5. Strategic Alignment.

Each Core Element is described below in this section, and detailed scoring criteria for each can be found in Section V.A.

1. Core Element 1: Evidence-Based Design The TAACCCT is one of several Federal grant programs in which grantor agencies fund projects that seek to use evidence to design program strategies. These initiatives fund the development of new strategies or the replication of existing evidence-based strategies and award grants to eligible institutions that are committed to using data to continuously evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies in order to improve their programming. The Department is committed to funding programs that are likely to improve education and employment outcomes for program participants while providing grantees the flexibility to identify and integrate effective strategies in their education and training programs and adjust or improve weaker strategies.

Applicants should continue to use evidence to improve their programs throughout the duration of the project.

As specified in Section V.A.2.i, applicants must base their program design on a level of evidence that is appropriate to the project proposed. Applicants who propose to replicate existing strategies should cite strong or moderate evidence from prior research to support the proposed program design. Alternatively, applicants who propose to develop new, untested strategies should cite preliminary research findings, related research findings, and/or reasonable hypotheses to support the design of the program. Please refer to the Strength of Evidence Definitions in Appendix A for more information about levels of evidence.

2. Core Element 2: Stacked and Latticed Credentials

The Department is interested in providing more opportunities for TAA-eligible workers and other adults to earn post-secondary credentials, while supporting the interoperability of programs and reducing duplication across funded programs. Successful applicants must work closely with industry associations and employers who will review programs of study and identify clusters of courses that could be considered for valued credentials. As specified in Section V.A.2.ii, applicants must incorporate into the program design the development of certifications, certificates, and diplomas, all of which can be stacked as students progress, allowing them to build a portfolio of credentials that can serve them well regardless of whether or not they ultimately complete a full degree program. The Department also strongly encourages applicants to develop specific plans to work with industry associations and employers within industry sectors to develop standardized credentials that are widely recognized by employers and other educational institutions.

In addition to stacking certificates that lead toward a degree, programs should allow the option to “lattice” these credentials. Where stacking is linear, with each credential building on previously-learned content, latticing, as the name implies, allows for side-to-side credentialing. As students progress through a degree plan, earning certificates along the way, they may get to a point where they want to add or shift to another related field of study.

To determine the most effective and accelerated path toward credential attainment, applicants must plan to perform competency-based assessments and award credit for prior learning and experiences of TAA-eligible workers and other adults who enter their program(s), including adults who have served in the Armed Services. Many individuals will bring with them learning and experience in the form of academic credit, non-credit or professional development certificates, and/or work experience, and should be provided the opportunity to demonstrate competencies in order to earn credit or even complete certificates.

Applicants may also plan to develop and offer creative and outcomes-based approaches to enhance the entrepreneurship skills of students in a wide variety of programs. This could include programs that prepare students to:

Engage in innovation in business processes, new technologies, or accessing the global marketplace;

Participate in the commercialization of Federally-funded research & development;

and/or

Engage in business formation activities along a continuum of entrepreneurial behavior, from opportunity identification to business incubation to product launch.

3. Core Element 3: Online and Technology-Enabled Learning

The Department is interested in learning strategies that can effectively serve TAA-eligible workers and other adult learners. Online and hybrid (combining traditional and online) learning strategies can allow adults who are struggling to balance the competing demands of work and family to acquire new skills at a time, place, and/or pace that are convenient for them. Further, the Department encourages strategies that can improve access to quality education for students in underserved areas, and which have the potential to accelerate the time to completion for these individuals. Programs should be designed for maximum scalability in order to successfully reach large numbers of adults. In addition to developing courses and/or programs, applicants may propose technology-based infrastructure projects that aid the delivery of courses and programs and/or improve the effectiveness of the instruction they deliver.

As specified in Section V.A.2.iii, applicants must present innovative and sophisticated applications of technology, including online, hybrid and/or technology-enabled strategies. These strategies should effectively teach content to students, enable students to teach themselves and each other, and/or allow students to engage in hands-on learning. Online and technology-enabled learning strategies can support competency-based assessment models and models for accelerated learning.

Examples of innovative online or technology-enabled learning methods include interactive simulations, personalized and virtual instruction, educational gaming, and strategies for asynchronous and real-time collaboration among learners and instructors. The Department encourages applicants to leverage the Department of Energy’s National Training and Education Resource (NTER), which provides open source tools to help subject matter experts create compelling, 3D interactive content quickly and easily. See http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/about_system.html for more information about NTER.

4. Core Element 4: Transferability and Articulation

The Department is interested in transferability and articulation that will create career pathways for TAA-eligible workers and other adults to further their education, including through increased cooperation among institutions both within and across state lines and linkages with programs such as postsecondary career technical education, pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs that lead to credit-bearing coursework and employment.

As specified in Section V.A.2.iv, applicants must incorporate credit transferability and articulation into their program design. Both individual and consortium applicants must plan to work with other two-year colleges and four-year institutions in their state to confirm transferability and develop articulation agreements for TAACCCT-funded courses and credentials, including building bridges from non-credit to credit within and between institutions. Applications that propose two-year degree programs must plan to develop an articulation agreement with at least one four-year institution that offers degrees such as a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) or an Applied Baccalaureate (AB), or with a college that is authorized to offer a community college baccalaureate, because these four-year degrees are geared toward the adult student who is bringing experience and/or prior learning to the table, or who is transferring from a community college. If appropriate, the articulation agreement may be with a member of the applicant consortium. The articulation agreements should provide for a streamlined, guaranteed transfer process for transfer students, and list all courses and grades that will transfer from the college to the four-year institution(s).

For consortium applicants, members must agree to accept (as appropriate) all TAACCCT-funded courses and credentials (within the consortium) for transfer to their respective institutions.

To expand the reach and impact of TAACCCT-funded programs, consortia that receive funding under this SGA should be prepared to reach out across state lines, and work toward accepting relevant courses and certificates from TAACCCT programs funded in fiscal year 2011 for transfer and articulation, as appropriate (see www.doleta.gov/taaccct for a list of previously-funded programs).

5. Core Element 5: Strategic Alignment

Applicants must strategically align their programs with at least three types of key stakeholders: (i) employers and industry; (ii) the public workforce system; and (iii) educational institutions and other organizations.

i. Employers and Industry

Applicants must involve at least one employer for each targeted industry in the program who must be actively engaged in identifying the necessary skills and competencies for the program(s), and who will assist with curriculum development and program design, as well as participating in one or more of the following ways: helping define the program strategies and goals, providing resources to support education/training (such as equipment, instructors, funding, internships, or other work-based learning activities), and committing to hire qualified program participants. While only one employer for each targeted industry is required, the Department is most interested in applicants that collaborate with multiple employers and/or other organizations representing an industry sector, including skills consortia, existing industry sectoral partnerships, economic development clusters, or regional innovation clusters, to ensure that program participants will be prepared with the skills needed in the applicant’s region.

Applicants must provide a signed letter of commitment from employer partner(s) as described in Section IV.B.Part III.c. However, please note that employers are not eligible institutions, and therefore must not be listed as members of a consortium in a consortium agreement.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/about_system.html http://www.doleta.gov/taaccct

ii. Public Workforce System

Applicants must engage and collaborate with the public workforce system, including local workforce investment boards, one-stop career centers, or workforce system partners as defined under section 121(b)(1) of the Workforce Investment Act. Examples of suggested partners include adult education agencies, career technical education agencies, and other post-secondary education agencies. This engagement could include identifying, assessing, and referring appropriate candidates for education and training; connecting workers with employers; providing support services where appropriate; and tracking TAACCCT TAA program participants as they re-enter the workforce. Applicants must provide evidence that workforce system partner(s) are committed to being involved in the project. Successful applicants will be encouraged to work with their local Workforce Investment Boards to ensure that proposed programs of study are included in appropriate eligible training provider lists.

Please note that these organizations and agencies are not eligible institutions, and therefore must not be listed as members of a consortium in a consortium agreement.

iii. Educational Institutions and Other Organizations All applicants must reach out to organizations that received funding under the FY 2011

TAACCCT SGA (as appropriate) to help decrease duplication and strengthen geographic reach, and should coordinate efforts where possible. This engagement could include sharing information, lessons learned, and program content; sharing technological innovations; developing transferability and articulation agreements; and working together to standardize credentials. In order to promote better coordination, the Department encourages applicants to share widely their intent to apply for TAACCCT funds with their state higher education associations and/or boards. By reducing duplication, applicants will be making the best use of TAACCCT funds. Please note, however, that the Department does not intend to fund the continuation or expansion of previously-funded TAACCCT projects.

In addition, the applicant must plan to leverage the work of philanthropic or non-profit organizations that support community colleges in their missions and goals.

C. Third-Party Evaluation of Project

All applications must include a budget, design, and implementation plan for an appropriate third-party evaluation of their proposed project to be funded as part of the grant. A rigorous, quantitative evaluation of impact on participants using a random-assignment experimental design is strongly encouraged; however, it is expected that the activities proposed under this SGA will result in a wide range in the numbers of participants, and that projects will vary in the combination of capacity-building activities and participant training activities offered. Because the appropriate evaluation strategy will depend on the overall design of the proposed project, other evaluation methods may be acceptable. However, the applicant must have a strong justification for using methods other than the most rigorous to which their project is best suited. Further information on methodological types and grant characteristics is available in Appendix H. Evaluation costs must not exceed ten percent of the total budget.

D. Program Requirements

In addition to the Core Elements that applicants must include in the design of their programs and the third-party evaluation of the project, TAACCCT also has the following program requirements.

1. Sustainability Congress has provided the TAACCCT grant program with funding for four fiscal years.

Because the Department does not intend to fund the continuation of projects funded in each of these fiscal years, applicants should consider project strategies that will have a lasting impact, and must plan to sustain effective innovations developed under this program after the grant period ends. As indicated in Section V.A.3.ii, applicants must describe how they will use data to determine which strategies and activities were effective and explain how they would integrate effective practices into core programs to enact broader institutional improvements. In addition, applicants must describe how successful funded programs will be incorporated into the curriculum offerings of the institution. Finally, applicants must describe how the institution(s) will sustain its partnership with employer partners as indicated in Section V.A.3.ii. This sustainability planning may require securing funding or future funding commitments from non-Federal sources.

2. Review of Grant Deliverables

Grantees will be required to identify third-party subject matter experts to conduct reviews of the deliverables produced through the grant. Applicants should allot funds in their budgets for the independent review of their deliverables by appropriate subject matter experts. Subject matter experts are individuals with demonstrated experience in developing and/or implementing similar deliverables. These experts could include applicants’ peers, such as representatives from neighboring education and training providers. The applicant must provide the Department with the results of the review and the qualifications of the reviewer(s) at the time the deliverables are provided to the Department.

3. Accessibility

All online and technology-enabled content and courses developed under this SGA must incorporate the principles of universal design (see http://www.cast.org/udl/) in order to ensure that they are readily accessible to qualified individuals with disabilities in full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Sections 504 and 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Level AA (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/).

4. Technical Standards for Digital Assets

All digital assets within online and technology-enabled courses, including course components, tests, e-publications and applications used in course development under this SGA, should be produced to maximize interoperability, exchange and reuse. In addition, all assessments and/or other content that result in a student score or grade must conform to industry-leading e-learning open standards and specifications (for example, LR [Learning Registry], AICC [Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee], LRMI [Learning Resource Metadata Initiative], IMS [Information Management Standard], PESC [Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council], or SCORM [Shareable Content Object Reference Model]). Applicants must identify the industry standard they will use in online course development. All digital assets must be licensed for free, attributed public use and distribution under the CCBY license (as described in Section I.D.5). Applicants are also encouraged to share, where available, anonymous data on learning and usage.

5. Intellectual Property Rights

In order to ensure that the Federal investment of these funds has as broad an impact as possible and to encourage innovation in the development of new learning materials, as a condition of the receipt of a TAACCCT grant, the grantee will be required to license to the public (not including the Federal Government) all work created with the support of the grant (Work) under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CCBY) license. Work that must be licensed under the CCBY includes both new content created with the grant funds and modifications made to pre-existing, grantee-owned content using grant funds.

http://www.cast.org/udl/

This license allows subsequent users to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the copyrighted Work and requires such users to attribute the Work in the manner specified by the grantee. Notice of the license shall be affixed to the Work. For general information on CCBY, please visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0. Questions about CCBY as it applies to specific TAACCCT grant applications should be submitted to DOL to the Grants Management Specialist specified in Section VII.

Only work that is developed by the grantee with the grant funds is required to be licensed under the CCBY license. Pre-existing copyrighted materials licensed to, or purchased by the grantee from third parties, including modifications of such materials, remain subject to the intellectual property rights the grantee receives under the terms of the particular license or purchase. In addition, works created by the grantee without grant funds do not fall under the CCBY license requirement.

The purpose of the CCBY licensing requirement is to ensure that materials developed with funds provided by these grants result in Work that can be freely reused and improved by others.

When purchasing or licensing consumable or reusable materials, grantees are expected to respect all applicable Federal laws and regulations, including those pertaining to copyright and the accessibility provisions of the Federal Rehabilitation Act.

Separate from the CCBY license to the public, the government reserves a paid-up, nonexclusive and irrevocable license to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use, and to authorize others to use for Federal purposes: i) the copyright in all products developed under the grant, including products developed through a subcontract under the grant; and ii) any rights of copyright to which the grantee or a contractor purchases ownership under an award (including but not limited to curricula, training models, technical assistance products, and any related materials). Such uses include, but are not limited to, the right to modify and distribute such products worldwide by any means, electronically or otherwise. The grantee may not use Federal funds to pay any royalty or license fee for use of a copyrighted work, or the cost of acquiring by purchase a copyright in a work, where the Department has a license or rights of free use in such work.

6. Required Disclaimer for Grant Deliverables

The grantee must include the following language on all Work developed in whole or in part with grant funds, including its incorporation in the license: “This product was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The product was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S.

Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership.”

E. Allowable Activities The Department anticipates that the majority of applicants will include three specific types of allowable activities to support their work: a) hiring and/or training additional instructors or staff (including the costs of salaries and benefits) to assist in the development and/or delivery of new curricula, and establishing internships, Registered Apprenticeship, or clinical/cooperative education programs at employer sites; b) purchasing or upgrading classroom supplies and equipment and/or educational technologies that will contribute to the instructional purpose in education and training courses supported by the grant; and c) costs associated with implementing changes in the time or scheduling of courses.

Other allowable activities may include, but are not limited to, implementing and/or enhancing the information technology infrastructure used to provide education and training and related activities; developing staff and infrastructure capacity to acquire, organize, and/or analyze program data for continuous improvement and program evaluation; expanding and improving the capacity of student services that directly support the goals of the grant (for example, career guidance programs); leasing space that is used for education and training and related activities;

altering or renovating facilities (in accordance with the Federal Cost Principles at 2 CFR Part 220) that are used for education and training and related activities (which could include ensuring that the facilities comply with Federal architectural accessibility obligations that require facilities to be readily accessible to and usable by qualified individuals with disabilities); and other costs of program development such as using subject matter experts from industry, education, state workforce agency labor market and economic research entities, and other areas to inform and assist in curriculum design. After grant awards are made, applicants will be required to obtain specific Grant Officer approval prior to proceeding with proposed alteration of facilities Applicants should refer to Section VI of the SGA for a list of relevant Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circulars related to cost principles, administrative and other requirements that apply to this Solicitation.

Unallowable activities include the use of grant funds to pay the costs of a participant’s tuition (including scholarships), books, fees, and other personal expenditures; incentive payments for participants such as performance-based cash bonuses; wages of participants (including the wages of students participating in co-operative education programs, Registered Apprenticeship, or internships) and stipends for wage replacement of participants; the purchase of real property; and construction (not including altering or renovating facilities, as described above). Applicants should ensure they do not propose the unallowable activities listed above. These activities may duplicate services and benefits provided to TAA-eligible workers, adults who receive Unemployment Insurance, or adults who participate in Workforce Investment Act programs. For example, TAA-eligible participants in TAACCCT-funded programs are entitled to TAA services, including tuition and related necessary and approved expenses such as books, tools, academic fees, travel or transportation expenses, and subsistence expenses.

Applicants may not use grant funds to supplant other funding sources they are currently using to fund existing activities. As with all costs charged to the grant, the costs of equipment must meet the standards in the applicable Federal cost principles, found in Part VI of this SGA, including that the costs are reasonable and necessary to achieve grant outcomes and have prior approval from the Grant Officer after a grant is received.

Applicants could include activities that expand or improve entrepreneurship training if those activities provide training that prepares participants for employment with an employer, such as with a consulting firm, start-up or other business. For example, applicants could propose activities related to either “generalized” entrepreneurship training as a complement to skills-based credentials, or “customized” entrepreneurship training designed for specific career pathways.

II. Award Information A. Award Amount Under this SGA, DOL intends to award up to $500 million in grant funds to eligible institutions as described in Section III. In accordance with Section 272(b) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, the Department intends to fund grants of $2.5 to $3.0 million each to one individual applicant from each State, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, for a total of approximately $150 million. In addition, the Department intends to fund grants of $5 million to $15 million to consortium applicants as described in Section III.B, for a total of approximately $350 million. The Department reserves the right to adjust these funding distributions in accordance with the review and selection process described in Section V.C. In the event additional funds become available, the Department also reserves the right to use such funds to select additional grantees from applications submitted in response to this solicitation.

The Grant Officer will ensure that at least one eligible institution from each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico receives an individual grant of approximately $2.5 million.

To do so, the Grant Officer will select one individual (non-consortium) applicant from among the fundable applications within each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. If the Grant Officer finds that a State is not represented by a fundable application for an individual award, a determination will be made on whether any non-fundable individual applications can be made fundable by placing conditions on the grant. If the Grant Officer determines that no individual applications can be made fundable by placing conditions on the grant, or if there are no individual applications received from eligible institutions within a given State, DOL will contact the State agency responsible for community colleges to identify and work with an eligible institution to submit a proposal.

After the Grant Officer has selected one individual (non-consortium) applicant from among the fundable applications within each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico as described above, consortium applicants will be selected separately.

B. Period of Performance

The period of performance for these grant awards will be 48 months from the effective date of the grant. Applicants may propose a period of grant performance that is less than 48 months if it is reasonable and appropriate to the project timeline, deliverables, and proposed award amount. The performance period includes all necessary implementation and start-up activities, program development and enhancement, evaluation implementation and analysis, and pre- and post-program services.

All programs must be developed and offered within the first 36 months of the period of performance, with grant funds allocated for program development and delivery expended during that time. ETA expects that grantees will begin enrolling participants in education and training programs no later than approximately 12-18 months after the date of grant award. The final 12 months of the period of performance should be limited to gathering information and data for reporting outcome measures, as discussed in Section V.A.4, and completing the requirements for the third-party evaluation, as discussed in Section V.B.

Grantees must ensure that all expenditures are made with full transparency and accountability.

III. Eligibility Information A. Eligible Institutions Only “eligible institutions” may be awarded TAACCCT grants. Eligible institutions are institutions of higher education as defined in Section 102 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002) which offer programs that can be completed in not more than two years. They include public, proprietary, or other nonprofit educational institutions. Generally, such institutions of higher education include 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving Institutions, and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving Institutions. Educational institutions in the U.S. territories are eligible if they offer programs that can be completed in not more than two years and are accredited by an agency or association recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. However, applications from institutions not located in the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico will not have certified TAA for Workers participants and may not be eligible for the full 10 points in Section V.A.1.i.

Eligible institutions that received a grant through TAACCCT SGA/DFA PY 10-03 as a single applicant or as the lead institution in a consortium application (called a “Grantee Institution” in this SGA) are not eligible to apply as a single institution or Grantee Institution in a consortium application under this solicitation; and, if submitted, their applications will be found non-responsive and will not be reviewed. However, eligible institutions previously funded as single applicants or lead institutions in consortium applications through TAACCCT SGA/DFA PY 10-03 are eligible to serve as member institutions in a consortium application under this SGA.

Eligible institutions may submit only one application in response to this SGA, either as a single eligible applicant or as the Grantee Institution in a consortium application. Eligible institutions that submit more than one application, either as a single eligible institution or as the Grantee Institution in a consortium, will be found non-responsive and none of their applications will be considered for funding. However, eligible institutions may submit an application as a single eligible institution, and also serve as a member of a consortium in one or more consortium applications in which they do not serve as the Grantee Institution.

Applicants must identify their institution type in Section 9 of the SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance. Eligible institutions must be accredited, as of the closing date of this SGA, by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association that has been recognized by the U.S.

Department of Education. A database of institutions that are accredited by agencies and associations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education can be found at http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. Applicants are strongly encouraged to check this website, as the Department will reference this database in determining an applicant’s accreditation to ensure eligibility. If an applicant does not have active accreditation status in this database as of the closing date of this SGA, the application will be found non-responsive and will not be reviewed.

B. Consortium Applicants The Department strongly encourages applicants to form consortia of two or more eligible institutions that will work together to develop programs that will impact individuals across a region, State, industry sector or cluster of related industries, and leverage their collective experience to expand and improve their ability to deliver education and career training programs. This may include developing and sharing courses that are available at a reasonable cost, offered during the day, at night, on weekends and virtually, and provide more workers with academic and industry-recognized credentials and meet the needs of more employers in local or regional growth industries for skilled workers in the communities represented by the consortium. DOL is particularly interested in consortium applications that include at least three eligible institutions, are state-wide and/or cross state lines, work with multiple employers within a sector, and/or reach out to and coordinate where possible with previously-funded TAACCCT projects. Applicants should note, however, that the Department does not intend to fund the continuation of projects funded under TAACCCT SGA/DFA PY 10-03.

Consortium applicants must identify in the application a lead institution in the consortium that will serve as the official grantee (the Grantee Institution) and have overall fiscal and administrative responsibility for the grant. This Grantee Institution must be the organization specified in Section 8 of the SF-424 Application Form. For the purposes of this Solicitation, the Grantee Institution specified on the SF-424 Application Form will be: 1) the point of contact with DOL to receive and respond to all inquiries or communications related to this SGA and the grant, if awarded; 2) the institution with authority to withdraw or draw down TAACCCT funds through the Department of Health and Human Services - Payment Management System (HHS-PMS); 3) the institution responsible for submitting to DOL all deliverables under the grant, including all technical and financial reports related to the project, regardless of which consortium member institution performed the work; 4) the institution that may request or agree to a revision or amendment of the grant agreement or statement of work; 5) the institution 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 6) the institution responsible for working with DOL to close out the grant.

Consortium members will function as co-grantees and not as sub-grantees or subcontractors.

However, by signing the Consortium Agreement, all consortium members agree that the Grantee Institution will be the official grantee and will perform all of the functions specified in this paragraph.

If any institution identified in the application as a consortium member drops out of the consortium before or upon award of the grant, the Grantee Institution must, within 60 days of award,

1) provide to ETA a written explanation as to why that institution will not be participating in the http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/ project, and 2) contact ETA to discuss next steps. The Department reserves the right to re-evaluate a consortium award in light of any such change in the consortium membership and may terminate the award if deemed appropriate. Please note, if a consortium member institution drops out, the funds and activities committed to in the application and consortium agreement may not be shifted automatically to another consortium member institution or to a new institution; the Grantee Institution must contact DOL and receive Grant Officer approval for changes to the consortium.

Applicants should note that there are specific submission instructions for consortium applications pertaining to the abstract (Section IV.B Part III) and Consortium Agreement (Section IV.B Part III). However, there is no requirement for the Consortium Agreement to take a particular form (e.g. a letter, agreement, or Memorandum of Understanding). The Consortium Agreement serves as the funding mechanism under which grant funds awarded to the Grantee Institution will be transferred to the member eligible institutions in the consortium. It is critical that no organizations other than eligible institutions are on the consortium agreement. Consortium applications that do not contain a Consortium Agreement will be deemed non-responsive to the SGA and will not be reviewed. Consortium Agreements in which one or more individual member institutions do not meet the eligibility requirements of the Solicitation will be deemed non-responsive to the SGA and will not be reviewed.

C. Eligible Participants

Eligible participants are the diverse population of workers eligible for assistance under the TAA for Workers program, as well as other individuals whom grantees determine to be eligible for training and educational opportunities under this grant. Eligibility requirements for those participants who are not eligible for training under the TAA for Workers program must be based on the admission requirements of the institutions funded. In addition, successful applicants must give priority of enrollment to workers eligible for training under the TAA for Workers program.