Deadline: 8-Nov-21
The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL, the Department) has announced the applications for Workforce System Technical Assistance Collaborative to improve the quality of employment and training services provided to the nation’s job seekers and employers.
The Workforce System TA Collaborative is an entity or consortium of partners that, in close coordination with DOL, will plan, develop and deliver TA to the public workforce system, considered here as primarily WIOA Title I and Wagner-Peyser Act Employment Service grantees and required partners of the one stop delivery system, where TA to a broader range of partners improves WIOA Title I and Wagner-Peyser Act service delivery.
Through a cooperative agreement with DOL, the new Collaborative will provide strategic, shortand long-term TA to help public workforce system entities at the state and local levels improve service quality and outcomes for job seekers and employers who use the public workforce system for identified common needs of the system. In addition to proactive TA, the Collaborative will respond in real-time to emergent technical assistance needs of state and local workforce development boards, state workforce agencies, and one-stop partner programs in coordination with DOL in order to improve services.
This Announcement solicits applications to establish a Workforce System Technical Assistance Collaborative, funded by Dislocated Worker Technical Assistance and Training funds and by Employment Service Technical Assistance and Training funds. The Department is funding this effort with a combination of the WIOA Dislocated Worker and Wagner-Peyser Act Employment Service technical assistance funds because the Collaborative will reflect a comprehensive approach to improving services for job seekers and employers in the public workforce system, which provides integrated services under WIOA and the Employment Service.
Goals
The TA Collaborative funded under a cooperative agreement must, at a minimum:
- Develop comprehensive TA strategies system-wide, intended to increase the workforce system’s efficacy, performance, and efficiency, as well as customized strategies for specific states and localities;
- Provide technical assistance to individual WIOA Title I and Wagner-Peyser Act Employment Service grantees experiencing an acute challenge, identifying such grantees needs in consultation with ETA;
- Use ETA’s platforms to create an online community to support key stakeholders and customers during the life of the project, which can be sustained by the Department after the project ends;
- Facilitate peer-to-peer learning;
- Develop summaries of best practices, profiles or toolkits of how grantees can implement evidence-based practices, and written resources to provide assistance;
- Assist the public workforce system in conducting participant and employer outreach, program implementation, and partnership building.
- Coordinate with ETA through a TA steering committee to leverage, align, and build on existing TA efforts already in place to maximize the use of resources and minimize the duplication of efforts. The Collaborative must ensure, at ETA’s direction, engagement with ETA-funded TA contractors to support these efforts; and
- Coordinate across all TA Collaboratives to serve the public workforce system, provided ETA awards more than one cooperative agreement.
Funding Information
- They expect availability of approximately $3 to 3.5 million to fund one or more cooperative agreement(s). You may apply for a ceiling amount of up to $3.5 million.
- The period of performance is thirty-six (36) months with an anticipated start date of February 2022.
Geographic Scope
- The TA Collaborative will focus on providing technical assistance on a national scale. The Collaborative will primarily engage the workforce system and its partners through a virtual platform/online presence.
- Applicants must develop comprehensive strategies that will provide technical assistance across the public workforce system (i.e. capacity to service and reach multiple geographic locations, as applicable, per Collaborative).
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants must be organizations that possess the internal capacity, external relationships, and expertise in workforce development that will enable them to deliver TA services on a national, system-wide scale to the public workforce system. The following entities are eligible to apply:
- non-profit organizations and for-profit businesses;
- educational institutions, including community colleges, universities, and research institutions;
- labor organizations or trade unions; or
- state governments and state workforce development boards, or private institutes or independent policy research organizations.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=335390