Note to Reviewer-Justification

NOTE TO THE REVIEWER

Generic Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA)

OMB Control Number: 1225-0086

SGA for Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants Program

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL announces the availability of up to $500 million in grant funds to be awarded under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grants program (TAACCCT). These funds are available to eligible institutions of higher education to serve workers who are eligible for training under the TAA for workers program in the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The TAACCCT provides community colleges and other eligible institutions of higher education with funds 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 workers who are eligible for training under the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program, and prepare program participants for employment in high-wage, high-skill occupations. The targeted population of this program is workers who have lost their jobs or are threatened with job loss as a result of foreign trade. The DOL intends to fund multi-year grants to eligible institutions for either developing innovative programs or replicating evidence-based strategies. As a result of this SGA, the DeOL is helping to ensure that our nation’s institutions of higher education are able to help the targeted population 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 requirements of the TAACCCT, the DOL intends to award at least 0.5 percent of the total amount of available funds to eligible institutions in each State, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The eligible applicants for this SGA are institutions of higher education and consortia of two or more of those eligible institutions. The DOL intends to fund grants ranging from $2.5 million to $5 million for individual applicants and from $2.5 million to $20 million for consortium applicants. Grants may exceed the award amount ceiling on two conditions only:

• Individual or consortium applicants propose to replicate, at multiple sites and/or with the targeted and other populations, strategies that have been shown by prior research to have strong or moderate evidence of positive impacts on education and/or employment outcomes. See Attachment F for more information on the Evidence-Based Conceptual Framework; or

• Individual or consortium applicants propose to develop and implement online and technology-enabled courses and learning projects that will be taken to scale beyond the community level to reach significant numbers of diverse students over a large geographic area.

DOL estimates 800 applicants will each spend 20 hours responding once to this particular information collection (800 responses, 16,000 hours, $0 Dollars). If approved, the totals requested will not exceed the burden ceiling for this Control Number.