Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants Program Solicitation for Grant Applications Supplementa

Generic Solicitation for Grant Applications

Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants Program Solicitation for Grant Applications Justification

Supplemental Supporting Statement A: Justification

This request seeks Office of Management and Budget approval for the unique information collections contained in the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grants Program Solicitation for Grant Applications. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Employment and Training Administration (ETA) will announce the availability of approximately $450 million in grant funds authorized for the (TAACCCT) Grant Program by chapter 2 of title II of the Trade Act of 1974, 19 U.S.C. §§ 2271-2323.

The TAACCCT Program provides capacity-building grants to spur innovation and the development of model training programs at America’s community colleges and universities. TAACCCT-funded programs will prepare participants for employment in high-wage, high-skill occupations by using innovative and sophisticated strategies that address the unique needs of unemployed or under-employed adults. Throughout the first three rounds of TAACCCT, grantees have transformed the ways they design and deliver courses to adults through accelerated learning strategies, redesigned curricula, and technology-enhanced learning activities. These have included the incorporation of prior learning and knowledge, integrated occupational and academic learning, new educational technology, work-based learning opportunities, and online and distance learning opportunities.

The DOL implements TAACCCT in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education. The two Departments believe the TAACCCT program plays a major role in helping America’s community colleges and other higher education institutions drive changes in designing and delivering programs that provide career pathways to good jobs for adult workers and meet employer needs for highly skilled workers in growth industries.

With this round of TAACCCT funding, the Department is focused on advancing innovative, sector-based system change in regional and statewide economies through grants to single eligible institutions and consortia of eligible institutions. These grant projects will create industry-driven strategies that are responsive to regional labor markets and state economies. Institutions within a consortium project will accomplish this by working across institutions within a local region or throughout a state while individual institutions will coordinate with other organizations within their local regional economy.

Applications include the following information collections:

(1) Form SF-424, Application for Federal Assistance and attachments (separately cleared under control number 4040-0004)

(2) Project Budget;

(3) Project Narrative and Attachments; and

(4) Organizational Profile.

Electronic availability:

This grant solicitation is available on the grants.gov Web site. Based on past DOL experience, the Department anticipates 80 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 SGA implicates no special circumstances.

Burden:

Based on past experience, the DOL expects to receive approximately 200 applications. The ETA estimates public reporting burden for the information collection to average 20 hours per response for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining needed data, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

200 applications x 20 hours =4,000 hours.

The DOL has increased the October 2013, average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry of $30.38 by 40 percent (total $42.53) to monetize this burden. See The Employment Situation—December 2013, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_01102014.pdf at 35.

4,000 hours x $42.53 = $170,120.

The DOL associates no other burden costs with this information collection. In addition to the application, each grantee will be required to submit quarterly financial, performance, and narrative reports to the ETA. Those information collection requirements will be cleared under a separate control number.

Total burden: 200 respondents, 200 responses, 4,000 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supplemental Supporting Statement B: Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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