Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations Grants Justification

Generic Solicitation for Grant Applications

Control Number 1225-0086

Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) Grants Justification

Abstract:

The Women’s Bureau (WB) and the Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA) Office of Apprenticeship (OA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), will announce the availability of approximately $1,800,000 in grant funds authorized under the WANTO Act of 1992, Public Law 102-530, 29 USC 2501 et seq. To that end, the OA and WB plan to disburse Program Year 2011 and 2012 WANTO grant funds to six consortia made up of a community-based organization (CBO), a Local Workforce Investment Area (LWIA) established under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and a registered apprenticeship program (RAP) sponsor. Each consortium will conduct innovative projects to improve outreach, recruitment, hiring, training, employment, and retention of women in apprenticeships in the nontraditional occupations, as defined in Section IX of this solicitation.

Each CBO, LWIA and RAP consortium must consist of a minimum of three components: 1) a CBO, which may be a faith-based organization, that has demonstrated experience in providing women with job-training services; 2) a LWIA, which includes a representative of the local government responsible for administering workforce programs under WIA or Workforce Investment Board; and (3) a RAP sponsor, which can be an individual employer, association of employers, or an apprenticeship committee which includes joint and non-joint committees designated by the sponsor to administer and operate an apprenticeship program and in whose name the apprenticeship program is registered or approved. It is anticipated that awards will be in the amount of up to $300,000 over the two-year grant period. The grants will be awarded in June 2012 and funded over a two-year period.

Electronic availability:

This grant solicitation is available on the grants.gov Web site. Based on past DOL experience, the Department anticipates 50 percent of responses will be submitted electronically.

Small Entities:

This information collection will not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.

Assurances of confidentiality:

These grant solicitations do not offer applicants assurances of confidentiality.

Special circumstances:

This information collection complies with 5 CFR 1320.5.

Burden:

Based on past experience, the DOL expects to receive approximately 40 applications. Public reporting burden for the information collection is estimated to average 20 hours per response for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

40 applications x 20 hours = 800 hours.

In addition to the application, each grantee will be required to submit quarterly financial, performance, and narrative reports to ETA. Those information collection requirements will be cleared under a separate Control Number.

The DOL has increased the December 2011 average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry of $23.25 by 40 percent (total $32.55) to monetize this burden. See The Employment Situation—February 2012, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_03092012.pdf at 32.

800 hours x $32.55 = $26,040.

The DOL associates no other burden costs with this information collection.

Total burden: 40 respondents, 40 responses, 800 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supporting Statement B; Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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