White House and Dept. of Labor invest millions in TechHire Grants Competition, launching today
Launch $100 Million TechHire Grant Competition Including $50 Million for Young Americans
America
has about 5.5 million open jobs today. Over half a million job openings
are in information technology fields such as software development,
network administration, and cybersecurity—rapidly growing sectors with
many more jobs than just a decade ago. Whether in manufacturing,
advertising, retail or banking, the average salary in a job that
requires information technology (IT) skills is 50 percent higher than
the average private-sector American job.
Businesses
have added 13.5 million jobs over 68 straight months of private-sector
job growth, extending the longest streak on record. While this progress
is significant, employers are
in critical need of tech talent and too many Americans lack the skills
and experience to access these well-paying jobs. Over six million young
Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 are out of school and work,
which represents a significant untapped resource of productivity and
talent for the country.
That is why in March 2015, President Obama launched TechHire,
a bold multi-sector effort and call to action to empower Americans with
the skills they need, through universities and community colleges, but
also nontraditional approaches like “coding bootcamps” and high-quality
online courses that can rapidly train workers for a well-paying job,
often in just a few months.
Since
then, 35 cities, states, and rural areas with more than 500 employer
partners in need of this workforce, have begun working together to find
new ways to recruit and place applicants based on their actual skills
and to create more fast track tech training opportunities. The President
has set a goal of reaching more than 40 communities by the end of 2015.
Today,
the Administration announced new steps to ensure that Americans,
including youth and young adults ages 17-29, individuals with
disabilities, individuals with limited English proficiency, and
individuals with criminal records, get access including:
- $100 Million TechHire Grant Competition. Earlier this year, the President announced that as a part of the TechHire initiative, the Administration would commit $100 million to expanding accelerated tech training. Today, the Department of Labor (DOL) is releasing the application for those grants. They will award $100 million or more in H-1B funds, including at least $50 million specifically dedicated to supporting young Americans, ages 17-29, with barriers to training and employment, to partnerships that can that rapidly train and connect workers to well-paying, high-growth jobs across industries such as information technology, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing.
● $20 Million Training to Work Grant Competition.
Building off the President’s announcement from earlier this month of
new actions to promote rehabilitation and reintegration for the formerly
incarcerated, today the Administration is also announcing the launch of
the fourth round of DOL’s Training to Work grant competition that will
award approximately 14 grants to expand access to tech jobs and other
high growth occupations for adults ages 18 and older returning from
correctional facilities. Interested applicants may apply to this
opportunity here.
● 14 Cities and States Have Made New Commitments to Expand Access to Tech Training and Jobs Since the Launch.
Since the launch of TechHire earlier this year, the President has
announced that 14 new communities including Baltimore have responded to
the TechHire initiative with commitments to work with employer partners
on new ways to recruit and place applicants based on their skills,
create more accelerated tech training opportunities, and invest in
innovative placement programs to connect trained workers with
entrepreneurial opportunities and well-paying jobs. Today, the City of
Baltimore is launching its TechHire initiative with an emphasis on
including those who have historically been left out of Baltimore’s
economy and those who are underrepresented in tech fields.
New cities and states that have joined since March
Akron, OH
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Baltimore, MD
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Birmingham, AL
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Cincinnati, OH
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Lynchburg, VA
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Maine
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New Haven, CT
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Newark, NJ
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New Orleans, LA
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Oakland, CA
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Pittsburgh, PA
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Rhode Island
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San Jose, CA
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Washington, DC
|
More Details on Today’s Announcements:
$100 Million TechHire Grant Competition Includes at Least $50 Million for Young Americans
The
DOL competition will award $100 million or more in H-1B funds,
including at least $50 million specifically dedicated to supporting
young Americans ages 17-29 with employment and training barriers. Grants
will be awarded to approximately 30-40 grantees to pilot and scale
innovative partnerships between employers, labor organizations,
community colleges, and other training providers, local and state
governments, the workforce system, non-profits and faith-based
organizations that:
1) Expand access to accelerated learning options that provide a quick path to good jobs, such as “bootcamp” style programs, online options, and competency-based programs.
2) Use data and innovative hiring practices to expand openness to non-traditional hiring
by working with employers to build robust data on where they have the
greatest needs, identify what skills they are looking for, and build
willingness to hire from both nontraditional and traditional training
programs.
3) Offer specialized training strategies,
supportive services, and other participant-focused services that assist
targeted populations to overcome barriers, including networking and job
search, active job development, transportation, mentoring, and
financial counseling.
4) Connect people to jobs with hiring on-ramp programs
with steps ranging from investing in and working with industry-trusted
organizations, which will vouch for those who have the skills to do the
job, but who may lack the typical profile of degrees and career
experience.
While this funding opportunity supports the broader goals of the White House TechHire Initiative, there is no preference given to designated TechHire communities.
Interested applicants can find more information on the TechHire Grants Competition at the Grants.gov application page and at DOL’s TechHire page.
$20 Million Training to Work Grant Competition
The
DOL Training to Work competition will award approximately 14 grants
totaling $20 million to collaborative partnerships among employers,
industry associations, work release programs, and the workforce system
that:
1) Create career pathways into high-demand occupations and industries, such as tech.
2) Target
services to areas with high rates of poverty and crime, with special
consideration for communities designated by the Administration as
Promise Zones.
3) Provide
a coordinated suite of customized services, including case management,
mentoring, education, training, job placement, and post-employment
services.
TechHire Progress Since the Launch
● In
June at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the President set a goal to
double the number of TechHire cities and states from 21 to over 40 by
the end of 2015. Since then, 14 new communities have made independent
commitments to make sure that Americans can find work based on their
skills and not just their degree, to create more accelerated tech
training opportunities, and to invest in innovative placement programs
to connect diverse workers with entrepreneurial opportunities and jobs.
● Additionally,
several communities that launched initiatives in March have been making
progress in their pilot efforts. For example:
▪ Memphis, Tennessee is
partnering with local correctional facilities and the Tennessee College
of Applied Technology to offer a new one-stop career center inside
correctional facilities to train non-violent offenders prior to their
release in PC repair, networking, and application development. They are
partnering with Seedco to assist with soft-skills and career path
development as well.
▪ New York City, New York
through the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline, has launched the City University
of New York Tech Prep program to connect a broad group of individuals,
including women and minorities, across the system’s numerous campuses,
with industry-informed training and connections to internships or
full-time software development jobs with the help of employers like
Etsy, Foursquare, Goldman Sachs, MongoDB and Trello.
▪ In Minneapolis, Minnesota
the first class of graduates from the Minneapolis partner Prime Digital
Academy are being hired. Additionally, they have launched a $500
scholarship for any student of color applying to participate in the
program this year.
· Launch of Baltimore TechHire Initiative.
Today Baltimore is launching its TechHire initiative, which will
provide alternative pathways to web development, advertising technology,
digital fabrication, and cybersecurity jobs for residents including the
unemployed, underemployed, and formerly incarcerated. The initiative
will be led by OneBaltimore, which will launch a TechHire Council with
primary partners including the Baltimore City Mayor's Office of
Employment Development, Greater Baltimore Urban League, Code in the
Schools, Betamore, the Center for Urban Families, and Goodwill. Employer
partners include Verizon, Browns Communications, Delmock Technology,
G&G Solutions, Locas Technology, Digit All Systems, Intellibit,
SeeFuture, Microsoft, and BITH energy group.
The initiative will also be integrated into the work of My Brother’s
Keeper Baltimore in support of its Local Action Plan goal to strengthen
and expand career-exploration and training programs for opportunity
youth.
The President’s Agenda to Create Pathways to the Middle-Class through High-Quality, Job-Driven Training.
TechHire is part of the President’s broader agenda to invest in
job-driven training for young Americans and others to get into better,
well-paying jobs.
● Vice President Biden’s Job-Driven Training Review.
Last July, the Administration—with the leadership of Vice President
Biden—released a plan to expand the number of pathways for Americans to
gain the skills they need to get better, higher-paying jobs and increase
access to those pathways. Since then, we have taken a number of steps
to realize that vision, which is laid out in this progress report.
The President’s FY 2016 Budget Connecting for Opportunity
proposal provides $1.5 billion to fund subsidized summer and year-round
job opportunities for 600,000 youth and initiates a competitive grant
program for municipalities to create educational and career pathways for
disconnected youth.
● Educational Quality through Innovative Partnerships (“EQUIP”) Title IV Experiment. Some
non-traditional learning providers (MOOC’s, bootcamps, etc.) show
evidence of excellent student outcomes and employment outcomes.
However, without financial aid, these programs are largely inaccessible
to low-income students. To meet this need, the Department of Education is currently accepting applications
for a new financial aid experiment that will allow students to access
to Title IV student aid to enroll in non-traditional programs that are
partnering with educational to produce strong student and employment
outcomes. Letters of interest received prior to December 14, 2015, will
receive priority consideration.
● Performance Partnership Pilots (P3) for Disconnected Youth.
P3 provides communities with flexibility to implement innovative
programs to improve education, employment, and other key outcomes for
disconnected youth. The Administration launched the P3 initiative to
work with communities to strengthen efforts to overcome challenges
through new flexibility in how federal funds are used. State, local, and
tribal governments will have an opportunity to test new strategies for
serving disconnected youth, including by pooling funding for programs
and services and better coordinating and aligning the systems that serve
youth. This Fall, the Department of Education, in partnership with the
Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Justice, as well
as Corporation for National and Community Service and Institute For
Museum and Library Services, selected the first round of nine pilots
including Broward County, FL; Chicago, IL; East Baton Rouge, LA;
Indianapolis, IN; Los Angeles, CA; the State of Oklahoma; Seattle, WA;
Southeastern, KY; and Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, a Federally-recognized
Indian tribe.
● VA Accelerated Learning Competition.
To ensure that Veterans can take full advantage of innovative learning
models, VA has applied $5 million in innovation funding in FY15 and
continuing into FY16 to leverage accelerated learning and test its
effectiveness for transitioning Servicemembers and Veterans. The
initiative is focused on amplifying Veteran’s and transitioning
Servicemembers’ Information Technology experience through fast-tracked
training leading to industry certification. Since its launch, the
program received an overwhelming applicant response and students are
currently progressing through the initial training phase of the program.
