CAREER (Comprehensive and Accessible Reemployment through Equitable Employment Recovery) National Dislocated Worker Grants

On August 19, 2021, the Employment and Training Administration published Training and Employment Guidance Letter No. 25-20, Change 1. This Change 1 announces an increased amount of funding availability of up to $90 million, for the CAREER (Comprehensive and Accessible Reemployment through Equitable Employment Recovery) National Dislocated Worker Grants (DWGs), with award amounts of up to $3 million. Otherwise, the content in TEGL 25-20 remains the same. -

The CAREER DWG initiative will enable successful applicants to address and recover from the unprecedented unemployment and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Funds for these DWGs will support and enhance comprehensive employment services, and for supporting digitalization of services to unemployed jobseekers as well as the data systems necessary to connect the unemployed to reemployment.

The goal of the CAREER DWG is to help reemploy dislocated workers most affected by the economic and employment fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular those from historically-marginalized communities or groups, and those who have been unemployed for an extended period of time or who have exhausted UI or other Pandemic Unemployment Insurance programs.

Grantees will achieve this goal through:

i. Staff-assisted career services to comprehensively support reemployment, and appropriate supportive services. The grant can support participant training, as needed, to move into a higher paying career path, and other allowable supportive services necessary to complete training such as child care or transportation;

ii. Developing or upgrading accessible online systems, platforms, and data structures for access to services, job search, and career guidance; or

iii. Both of the above.

In carrying out the required activities, grantees will design and implement a strategy in line with this guidance and Training and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL) 12-19, National Dislocated Worker Grant Program Guidance, including carrying out extensive outreach to ensure that eligible participants are aware of the employment and training opportunities provided by the grant.