Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program, Third Round of Funding Solicitation of Grant Ap

Generic Solicitation for Grant Applications

Control Number 1225-0086

Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program, Third Round of Funding

Abstract:

This request seeks OMB approval for the unique information collections contained in the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program, third round of funding. Upon approval, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will announce the availability of approximately $474 million in grant funds to be awarded under the third round of the TAACCCT grant program. This solicitation announces a third round of funding under the 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 chapter 2 of title II of the Trade Act of 1974, 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 for this Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA) may be impacted by their limited opportunity to serve TAA–eligible workers. The primary intent of the TAACCCT program 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 by funding the expansion and improvement of education and career training programs that are suited for these individuals; however, the DOL expects that a wide range of individuals will benefit from the TAACCCT program once education and training programs are developed and implemented.

A key feature of the Round 3 Solicitation is the pre-conditions for all applicants to demonstrate employer engagement, use labor market information to focus training on local economic needs and improve programs, and evaluate their programs. In addition, Single-State Consortium applicants are required to develop employment results scorecards that track outcomes for students by program, and Multi-State Consortium applicants are required to develop employment results scorecard continuous improvement plans. In addition to asking all applicants to demonstrate employer engagement, the evaluation criteria includes scoring criteria for training models that include work-based training opportunities, such as apprenticeships and paid and for-credit internships, and include partnerships with community-based organizations and other nonprofits focused on providing services to workers.

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 350 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.

350 applications x 20 hours = 7,000 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 November 2012 average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry of $28.22 by 40 percent (total $39.51) to monetize this burden. See The Employment Situation—January 2013, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_02012013.pdf at 35.

7,000 hours x $39.51 = $276,570.

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

Total burden: 350 respondents, 350 responses, 7,000 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supporting Statement B; Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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