On June 19, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced the creation of the Reimagine Workforce Preparation Grant program, a $127.5 million competitive grant aimed to “provide students the opportunity to develop new skills, provide innovators and inventors the resources to expand existing businesses or build new ones, and encourage institutions of higher education to foster business development and innovation as America begins to recover from COVID-19-related disruptions to education and our economy.”
In the press release, Secretary DeVos argues that although colleges and universities are national treasures, they need to become more responsive to the needs of their students and communities. This grant, she goes on, is to empower them, along with their community partners, educators, business leaders, and entrepreneurs, to provide lower-cost education and training options that leverage the expertise of local business leaders and better embrace technological change.
This grant, which is funded through the Education Stabilization Fund (ESF) authorized under the CARES Act, is open to all states, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Eligible applicants are State Workforce Boards. To apply, states must demonstrate a burden created by the coronavirus pandemic and propose a project that will support people living and working in their communities, specifically along one of two tracks:
- Expanding educational opportunities through short-term, career pathways or sector-based education and training programs:
- Grantees are invited to propose the development or expansion of short-term education programs, including career pathways programs, to help prepare unemployed or underemployed individuals for high demand jobs in their community or region; and/or
- Grantees are invited to propose the development or expansion of industry sector-based education and training programs that lead to a credential that employers in a given sector recognize and reward.
- Supporting local entrepreneurship through small business incubators:
- Grantees are invited to submit applications that help colleges and universities make their faculty, staff and facilities more accessible to small businesses in their communities, and to ensure that institutions can sustain their operations at a time when enrollments are declining and campus buildings may be underutilized, including through the creation of small business incubators that are on the campus of, or affiliated with, one or more colleges and universities in the state.
Each state’s Workforce Board may submit one proposal. Once submitted, a panel of independent peer reviewers will evaluate each application to ensure that it meets the needs of the state and engages the full range of stakeholders, with the highest-scoring proposals being funded. States that were hardest hit by COVID-19 disruptions and projects that seek to address the needs of Minority-Serving Institutions and distressed communities will be prioritized among the strongest applicants.
Interested states should submit their completed application no later than August 24, 2020, and the Department intends to make awards no later than October 2020. Additional information on the grants can be found here.
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