The TAACCCT program provides capacity-building grants to drive 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 previous 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 overarching goals of the TAACCCT program are to:
- Increase attainment of degrees, certifications, certificates, diplomas, and other industry-recognized credentials that match the skills needed by employers to better prepare TAA-eligible workers and other adults for high-wage, high-skill employment or re-employment in growth industry sectors;
- Introduce or replicate innovative and effective methods for designing and delivering instruction that address specific industry needs and lead to improved learning, completion, and other outcomes for TAA-eligible workers and other adults; and
- Demonstrate improved employment outcomes.
Successful applicants will propose strategies that take to scale the adoption of policies, supported by evidence where it exists, that increase training retention, completion, and promote faster time to employment. Applicants are also encouraged to pursue strategies that lead to increased wages compared to prior employment of participants.
Successful applicants will propose projects that address all of these core elements:
Core Element 1: Evidence-Based Design:
Successful applicants will develop new strategies, or replicate or adapt existing evidence-based strategies, and will be committed to using data for continuous improvement of programs that provide workers with the education and skills to succeed in high-wage, high-skill occupations.
Core Element 2: Career Pathways:
Career pathway programs offer a clear sequence of education coursework and/or training credentials aligned with employer-validated work readiness standards and competencies and integrate academic and occupational skills training. Career Pathways are focused on one or more industry sectors. For TAA-eligible workers and other adults, these components, integrated within a comprehensive workforce and education strategy, can provide opportunities to earn a variety of post-secondary credentials that have labor market value.
Core Element 3: Advanced Online and Technology-Enabled Learning:
Successful applicants will incorporate online and/or technology-enabled learning strategies into their program design. Successful applicants will consider the use of technology to enable rolling and open enrollment processes, modularize content delivery, simulate assessments and training, and accelerate course delivery strategies.
Core Element 4: Strategic Alignment with the Workforce System and Other Stakeholders:
Successful applicants will demonstrate that they have performed outreach to, and gathered information on, relevant entities in the community(-ies) to be served by the project, including entities that can provide data on the characteristics and skill needs of workers receiving TAA benefits and services in the community. Applicants will also provide evidence of outreach to ensure leveraging of existing supports and services already available to participants in the region.
Core Element 5: Alignment with Previously-Funded TAACCCT Projects:
To minimize duplication and to broaden the geographic reach of their projects, all applicants should coordinate efforts where possible with educational institutions funded through prior rounds of TAACCCT.
Core Element 6: Sector Strategies and Employer Engagement:
Applicants are required to develop new and/or take to scale successful industry sector strategies. These sector strategies must focus on addressing employers’ workforce needs by expanding or improving applicants’ education and training programs based on the use of both traditional and real-time labor market information.