Last week, two new grants were announced that may provide opportunities for CTE programs. First, the Department of Labor issued a new solicitation on May 14 for "Round 2" of the Workforce Innovation Fund. A total of $53 million will be awarded through these grants, which are "designed to strengthen public job training programs by: delivering employment and training services more efficiently and effectively, facilitating greater cooperation across workforce programs and funding streams, scaling best practices, and implementing rigorous evaluation techniques."
While education institutions are not eligible applicants, they may participate in the grants in partnership with state workforce agencies or local workforce investment boards. Many of the suggested project activities also relate to CTE, such as:
- integrating adult basic education and occupational skills training
- implementing comprehensive career pathway approaches
- piloting or scaling innovative models to support and strengthen partnerships with business at the state and regional level
- partnering with local educational institutions, including community colleges
The grant announcement is available at http://www.grants.gov, and applications are due by June 18, 2014.
The Department of Education released application materials on May 15 for its new "First in the World" program. This new program, funded at $75 million, will award grants to institutions of higher education, individually or in consortium, to test or scale up projects designed to increase the proportion of Americans with a postsecondary credential. Projects must address one of five absolute priorities:
- increasing access and completion for underrepresented, underprepared or low-income students
- increasing community college transfer rates to four-year colleges for underrepresented, underprepared or low-income students
- increasing enrollment and completion of underrepresented, underprepared or low-income students in STEM degree and certificate programs
- reducing time to completion, especially for underrepresented, underprepared or low-income students
- improving college affordability, especially for underrepresented, underprepared or low-income students
Applications for this grant are due June 30, 2014. Two pre-application webinars have been scheduled on May 28 and June 4. Visit this page for more applicant information and to register for the webinars—http://www2.ed.gov/programs/fitw/applicant.html#tips.
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