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PA Bulletin, Doc. No. 99-824

NOTICES

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Availability of Adult Education Act Section 231 Funds for Workforce Development Services

[29 Pa.B. 2684]

   Title II of The Workforce Investment Act of 1998, The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, provides funds to local eligible provider agencies through the Department of Education (Department) for the establishment of adult education and family literacy programs that will:

   1.  Assist adults to become literate and obtain the knowledge and skills necessary for employment and self-sufficiency.

   2.  Assist adults who are parents to obtain the educational skills necessary to become full partners in the educational development of their children.

   3.  Assist adults in the completion of a secondary school education.

   Eligible applicants include local education agencies and public or private nonprofit agencies, organizations and institutions. A for-profit agency is eligible to participate in the program only if it is part of a consortium with a local education agency or other eligible sponsor, with the nonprofit agency acting as fiscal agent. A for-profit organization must also have the capability and capacity to augment significantly the adult education services of such a consortium.

   Consistent with the purpose of Title II, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, for Program Year 1999-2000, the Department will give primary consideration to programs for the educationally disadvantaged.

   The Federal share of a grant will be 75% of the total cost of the program. The applicant must provide 25% match of the total cost of the program. The local match may be in kind. Other Federal funds may not be used for the local match. The Department has made available a maximum of $500,000 for each year of the grant.

   Application due date: June 22, 1999.

   Application Procedures and Program Guidelines will be mailed to interested applicants as requested after May 1, 1999. The application packet is available from: Chief, Special Programs Division, Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education, Department of Education, 333 Market Street, 12th Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17126-0333.

   Purpose: The Commonwealth will replicate and adopt for Pennsylvania use, the Virginia Workforce Investment Network (VA WIN) program. The VA WIN program is currently administered by James Madison University through a grant from the Virginia Education Department to meet employe development needs in the Commonwealth of Virginia. (VA WIN may be accessed at <http://cep.jmu.edu/workforce>). The Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Network (PA WIN) project is designed to enable the incumbent workforce of this Commonwealth to be more effective, productive, competitive and self reliant through the development of onsite basic skills educational programs in workplaces across the State or through small business consortia. PA WIN will assist adult education providers in developing expertise to build a private sector enterprise that provides high quality basic skills programs as an employer/worker service. PA WIN shall establish a centralized support system for workplace education services providing quality basic skills training as a service to employers and workers. To achieve that purpose, PA WIN will:

   1.  Provide trained program developers--brokers--to assist employers in identifying workers' basic skills needs, link employers to adult education basic skills providers and assist both employers and providers in designing high quality basic skills programs to meet the identified needs.

   2.  Inform business, industry and government of the essential skills (basic skills) education services available, the impact of basic skills to the productivity of the workforce and the need for basic skills of the workers.

   3.  Provide professional development opportunities to adult educators to enhance their ability to work effectively with employers and workers in planning and providing customized basic skills programs that meet employer and worker needs.

   4.  Link PA WIN programs with the Commonwealth's system of workforce development, including links with Team Pennsylvania regions, Team Pennsylvania/CareerLink, local Workforce Investment Boards and other basic skill programs for incumbent workers such as the Guaranteed Basic Skills program, to integrate basic skills services with the continuum of workforce development services.

   Background: The Department of Education, Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE), has supported the educational needs of incumbent workers and employers through grants to local education providers over the past 10 years. These education programs offered have not kept pace with the demand due to funding limitations and real cuts to programs such as the National Workplace Literacy Grant. Basic skills educational programs sponsored by the Bureau provide workers in this Commonwealth with the skills necessary to enable them to compete in an ever widening and demanding global economy. However, there is increased awareness in the business community of a widening gap between workers' skills and skills needed for today's workforce. Workers also realize the need to upgrade their skills to retain employment and to move along a career ladder. Employers and workers have continued to request site-specific, educational programs; however, local agencies have not been able to keep up with the demand. This project will establish a systematic Statewide approach to meeting employer and worker needs for workplace basic skill training.

   Project Goals: The goals of the PA WIN project are to establish innovative services to address the literacy and basic skills need of employers and workers in the workforce through:

   1.  Marketing: serving the entire Commonwealth through a marketing effort. This effort will address multiple audiences to include business, industry and government, practitioners (administrators and instructors) and workers. The marketing effort will address the advantage of workplace basic skills programs and the services available. It will coordinate with and financially support the marketing plan as planned and developed by a marketing workgroup established through the project.

   2.  Training: in consultation with the ABLE Professional Development System, providing workforce development skills and training to the adult education system, assessing the training needs of the adult education providers (administrators and instructors), using and adapting current resource materials to develop and implement professional development training for adult education providers, evaluating and reviewing training activities.

   3.  Brokering: supporting a broker system that links businesses interested in starting a workplace education program with the local adult education providers. As a result of this brokering in the first year of operation, 1,600 workers will be served in a minimum of 40 workplace education programs. The programs should be geographically diverse within the designated Team Pennsylvania/CareerLink regions.

   4.  Curriculum Development: providing training and support systems that enable adult education practitioners to customize workplace services to meet the unique needs of each workplace and worker.

   5.  Service Linkage: Developing program linkages along the continuum of workforce development initiatives through the Team Pennsylvania/CareerLink system.

   Objectives: The Bureau will fund a lead agency to provide a centralized support system for worker development services. The lead agency will:

   1.  Develop and implement a model for a market driven learning network based upon the VA WIN model among incumbent workers, employers and workplace education providers.

   2.  Identify and certify a minimum of 40 workplace program brokers from among adult education workplace providers and other workforce development professionals in a minimum of five Team Pennsylvania regions during Year One of the Project.

   3.  Train the brokers to match adult education and literacy providers with employers needing incumbent worker basic and literacy education services in those regions and serve a minimum of 1,600 students.

   4.  Assist employers in analyzing basic skill needs of their workers.

   5.  Support employers and education providers in program design.

   6.  Train adult education and literacy administrators and instructors and other workforce development professionals to respond to individual employer and worker needs.

   7.  Provide curriculum development support to enable adult educators to customize teaching and learning that responds to worker and employer needs.

   8.  Establish links within the Team Pennsylvania regions and CareerLink system to integrate basic skill instruction into the continuum of workforce development services such as linking with apprenticeship programs, community colleges and other State initiatives.

   9.  Identify and train adult education provider agencies not currently providing workplace education programs in their geographic areas in the components of the workplace education system in the second half of Year One thereby expanding the PA WIN system.

   10.  In Year Two, continue activities of Year One and expand PA WIN capabilities into all Team Pennsylvania/CareerLink regions to include the identification and training of an additional 40 adult education providers to serve 2,000 students in those regions in PA WIN activities.

EUGENE W. HICKOK,   
Secretary

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 99-824. Filed for public inspection May 21, 1999, 9:00 a.m.]


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