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NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
Page 1
NTT DATA INC (US)
Moderator: Robyn WoodJune 5, 20181:00 pm CT
Coordinator: Good afternoon and thank you all for holding. Your lines will remain on a
listen only mode for the duration of today's conference. You can type your
questions into the chat feature on the WebEx session at any time. I would like
to remind all parties the call is now being recorded. If you have any
objections, please disconnect at this time.
I would now like to turn the call over to Erin Berg. Thank you. You may
begin.
Erin Berg: Thank you very much. My name is Erin Berg. I'm a community college
program specialist here with the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult
Education and I'll be you're moderator for webinar on the Pathways to STEM
Apprenticeship for High School, Career, and Technical Education students.
Can I ask if you have a hard time hearing me if you could send right now
through the Q&A function on the WebEx. Please send a little bit of an SOS
on there and I'll try to move the microphone or do what I can.
Please use the Q&A function as well for any questions that you may have
about the grant program or any other questions for websites or anything that
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
Page 2
we mention during the course of this webinar. But again, I'll go ahead and get
started. I do want to thank our team here at the Office of Career, Technical,
and Adult Education, which is shortened as to OCTAE. In the room with me
today, I have Corinne Sauri, who is with our policy group. I have Laura
Messenger, who is also with the division of academic and technical education,
which is the division of OCTAE that is supporting our project, and also our
branch chief, Robin Utz, who will be helping me answer your questions and
providing me with any information that I need today.
We'll go ahead and get started. It's 2:02. I've got some notes here that says
most people can hear me. Maybe a couple people are asking if they can't hear
but it's because they haven't dialed in. So we'll hopefully get them on the line
soon. I'm going to go ahead and get started.
So the purpose of today's webinar is to go over important information
regarding this new grant opportunity to help you determine if this program
aligns with your current programs or initiatives and to provide specific
information about the application process.
For your convenience and further review, these PowerPoint slides will be
posted and available at cte.gov probably by the end of the week or early next.
Just a disclaimer. This presentation is provided for informational purposes
only. The notice inviting applications published in the Federal Register
details all of the requirements for submitting an application, how applications
will be evaluated, and how grants will be awarded. The application package
on grants.gov provides very specific instructions for what to include in an
application.
Today, we're referencing two important documents during this webinar. If
you don't already have them, you'll want to download those two documents.
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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The first is the notice inviting applications for this program that was published
in the Federal Register on May 18, 2018. You'll want to read all of it
carefully. The second document is the Pathways to STEM Apprenticeship
Application package, which is available from grants.gov at
http://www.grants.gov. Please note that all pans must be submitted through
grants.gov.
The topics we'll cover today are the Federal Register notice, including the
program purpose, award information, eligibility, the absolute priority, the
invitational priority, the program requirements, the application requirements,
selection criteria, and performance measures. We'll also talk about the
submission deadlines, grants.gov, some tips of submission, and the
application.
So to begin, we want to know why are we funding this effort. Because the
Department views apprenticeship as an important and viable post-secondary
option. By combining paid on the job learning with related CT instruction in
the classroom and apprenticeship offers individuals that opportunity to earn
money as they learn and to prepare for jobs that paid wages that can support a
family.
Because employers are apprenticeship program sponsors often pay the cost of
the classroom instruction, as well as pay for dispensed wages, apprentices can
incur little to no debt, making an apprenticeship an attractive career
preparation alternative at a time when many college students are graduating
deeply in debt.
The average income for a worker who has created an apprenticeship program
is $68,000 a year according to December 2017 Labor Department Data.
While we have not been as successful in making apprenticeships accessible to
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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students during high school. Unlike in Europe, the apprenticeship system in
the United States does not have strong connections to high schools, including
high school CTE programs and serves very few individuals under the age of
25. Through the Pathways to STEM Apprenticeship Grants, we think the
change of pattern in participating states.
So why are you interested in learning more about this program? Hopefully,
it's because your state is interested in providing apprenticeship opportunities
for high school students, which is the purpose of this opportunity, to support
state efforts to expand and improve the transition of high school CTE students
to both secondary education and employment through apprenticeships in
STEM fields, including computer science, that begin during high school.
This slides provides basic but important information about this grant
competition. You can find this information on Page 23-267 of the Federal
Register notice. These are competitive grants. We anticipate that we will
award five grants based on our available funds, which are estimated to be
approximately $3 million. It's important to note that we'll be making awards
for one 36-month project period. The estimated average award size that you
see in the slide and in the Federal Register notice is for the full 36 month
project period. It is not for each year of the three year project period. And
because these are only estimates, the Department is not bound by any of these
estimates.
The application deadline is 4:30 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, July 17, 2018.
If you intend to submit an application, it would be very helpful to us if you
could send us an email indicating your intent to apply. This is completely
optional but having some idea of the number of grant applications to expect
helps us prepare for the review of the grant application. Again, the deadline
for the intent to apply is June 18, 2018. This doesn't have to be a long email.
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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Just simply type intend to apply in the subject line and include the name of the
applicant.
So who are the eligible applicants? Eligible applicants are the sole state
agency responsible for administering career and technical education in the
state or for supervising the administration of current technical education in the
state. In most states, it's the state education agency but in others, it could be a
State Board of Regents or a state community college board. Or it could be a
consortium of such state agencies - entities as defined above.
If you decide to submit as a consortium, please note that eligible applicants
proposing to apply for funds as a consortium must comply with the
regulations in 34 CFR 75.127 through 75.129, which address group
applications. And again, that’s in the grants.gov application.
This program has one absolute priority. You'll find it on Page 23-265 of the
Federal Register Notice. This is very important. Your application must meet
this absolute priority in order to be considered for funding. Any application
that does not meet the priority will be declared ineligible and will not be sent
to a panel for a review.
This competition has its absolute priority, which is promoting STEM
education with a particular focus on computer science. To meet this priority,
and applicant must propose a project design to improve student achievement
or other educational outcomes in one or more of the following areas --
science, technology, engineering, math, or computer science. The project
must address the following priority -- creating or expanding partnerships
between schools, local educational agencies, state educational agencies,
businesses, not for profit organizations, or institutions of higher education to
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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give students access to internships, apprenticeships, and other work day
planning experience in STEM fields, including computer science.
This competition has one invitational priority, which can be found on Page
23-265 of the notice. There are no extra points given to applicants who
choose to respond to this priority and no special preference is given to
applicants who choose to respond to this priority. The invitational priority is
for applications that propose a statewide or regional approach to increasing
the number of high school CTE students who begin to participate in
apprenticeships in STEM fields, including computer science, during high
school and local educational agencies that are also eligible for assistance
under the Small Rural School Achievement Program, or the Rural and Low
Income School Program authorized under Title V, Part B of the elementary
and secondary education act of 1965 as amended by the Every Student
Succeeds Act.
Applicants can determine whether a particular local educational agency is
eligible for these programs by referring to the information in the department's
website at a URL that's provided on Page 23-265 of the notice inviting
application.
This Pathways to STEM Apprenticeship Initiative has two program
requirements and two application requirements. You'll find them on Pages
23-265 through 23-266 of the notice. The first program requirement calls for
a partnership. The grantee must carry out a Pathways to STEM
Apprenticeship Grant in collaboration with at least one employer in the state
that has committed to implementing apprenticeship and one or more post-
secondary partner, such as the stage agency for higher education or one or
more post-secondary educational institutions. The two application
requirements for this competition relate to the partnership requirements.
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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For application requirement one, you must name your post-secondary partner
or partners in your application and you must include a letter of commitment
from each of your post-secondary partners. Stage agency for higher education
in both secondary educational institution are defined terms. So you will want
to review these terms in the definition sections of the notice.
The second application requirement, you must include a letter of commitment
from each employer partner. At a minimum you need at least one post-
secondary partner and one employee partner. You need to name them in the
application and include a letter of commitment from each partner. The second
program requirement is a bit more detailed. The grantee must carry out a
comprehensive Pathways to STEM Apprenticeship grant strategy that seeks to
increase the number of CTE students who participate in competency based
apprenticeships while enrolled in high school.
You'll find the definition of a competency based apprenticeship on Page 23-
266 of the notice. Competency based apprenticeship means an apprenticeship
program that enables apprentices to progress through and complete the
program by demonstrating mastery of the knowledge and skills taught in the
program, rather than complete a minimum number of work or instructional
hours.
The comprehensive strategy must be designed to give employers a leadership
role in designing, expanding, and implementing the strategy and adjust
barriers to participation for special populations. Employers could be at the
state, regional, or local level. Special populations are taken from Section 3,
Part 29 of Perkins 4 with a bit more explanation. If you turn to Page 23-265
of the notice, you'll see that regarding individuals with disabilities, we include
students with disabilities receiving services under Section 504 of the
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 504, or commonly referred to as Section
504 only students, students with disabilities identified as a child with a
disability under Section 602, Part 3, of the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act, individuals with any disability defined in Section 3 of the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Here, see further explanation regarding individuals preparing for non-
traditional fields. For this competition, we mean individuals preparing for
occupations or fields of work including careers in computer science,
technology, and other current and emerging high skill occupations for which
individuals from one gender comprise less than 25% of the individuals
employed in such occupation or field of work.
Now, these are the strategies that are part of the comprehensive strategy and
these are the activities that you'll use project funds to support. Such strategies
may include providing technical assistance to entities such as local
educational agencies, post-secondary educational institutions, and employers.
According to state level, or multi-state level efforts to expand competency
based apprenticeship opportunities for high school CTE students, such as
through coordination with other entities, such as state apprenticeship agency
or with the industry and labor organizations and businesses to develop
competency based apprenticeship programming in new sectors or industries.
This also includes developing or supporting the development of curricula that
can be used for the related CTE instruction components of competency based
apprenticeship programs. It can also be used to support providing support for
professional development, for teachers, post-secondary instructors, employers,
training providers, and others to promote the development and implementation
of new competency based apprenticeship opportunities.
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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It can be used to support the development and implementation of articulation
agreements and other processes towards post-secondary credit for the
completion of CTE courses and competency based apprenticeship programs,
such as dual credit or transcripted credit. It can be used to provide
information about competency based apprenticeship opportunities to the
public, including to students and their families. It can be used to provide sub-
grants to local educational agencies and post-secondary educational
institutions, to assist in creating or expanding opportunities for CTE students
to participate in competency based apprenticeships beginning in high school.
It also can support other activities that are designed to increase opportunities
for high school CTE students to participate in competency based
apprenticeships beginning in high school.
After applications are submitted through grants.gov before the deadline, we
will review each application for eligibility to make sure that it was submitted
by an eligible applicant, to make sure that it meets the absolute priority. After
applications are deemed eligible they will be evaluated. All eligible
applications are sent to a review panel that will review and score your
application using the exact same three criteria that were published in the
Federal Register Notice on Page 23-268.
You will see that each of these criteria has an assigned point value. Each sub-
criterion also has an assigned point value. These add up to the main criteria.
You will want to pay attention to the point values because the reviewers will
use the point values when scoring the applications. Also in addressing these
criteria, you are encouraged to make explicit connections to the priorities and
the requirements that we just discussed.
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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The maximum score for the three criteria is 100 points. You'll note that there
is no criterion for the quality of key personnel. You should address your
proposed personnel for the project under the management plan and under
resources. Going through each of the selection criteria, this first criterion is
about the quality of your project design and it's worth 45 points. Note that
those three sub-criteria are each worth 15 points. This criteria includes the
quality of project design, such as the Secretary considers the quality of the
project design in determining the quality of the project design for the proposed
project the Secretary considers, one, the likelihood that the proposed project
will result in system change or improvement.
Two, the extent to which the proposed project will integrate with or build on
similar or related efforts to improve relevant outcomes as defined in the CFR
listed there. Using existing funding streams for other programs or policies
supported by community, state, and federal resources. And finally, the extent
to which the services to be provided by the proposed project involve the
collaboration of appropriate partners for maximizing the effectiveness of
project services.
The second criterion is about the quality of your management plan and it's
worth 25 points. There's only criterion here and that's the adequacy of the
management plan to achieve the objective of the proposed project on time and
within budget, including clearly defined responsibilities, timelines, and
milestones for accomplishing project tasks. This criterion means the
Secretary considers the quality of the management plan for the proposed
project. In determining the quality of the management plan for the proposed
project, the Secretary considers the adequacy of the management plan to
achieve the objective. Was the proposed project on time and within budget,
including clearly defined responsibilities, timelines, milestones, and
accomplishing project tasks.
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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Sorry for being repetitive there but just wanted to make a point that those last
two things are important. Finally, this last criterion, adequacy of resources, is
worth 30 points. It address the adequacy of the resources of proposed
projects, including the budget and commitment from each partner and the
potential for the continued support of the project after this grant ends.
Each of the three sub-criteria is worth ten points and they include the extent to
which the budget is adequate to support the proposed project, relevance, and
demonstrates commitment of each partner and a proposed project to the
implementation and success of the project and the potential for continued
support of the project after federal funding ends, including as appropriate, the
demonstrated commitment of appropriate entities to such support. Ten points
for each sub-criterion.
Now, within the performance measures, the pathways to STEM
apprenticeship have established performance measures for this program.
You'll find them on Page 23-269 of the notice. Grantees will be responsible
for collecting and reporting data annually on the required performance
measures. These include the total number and percentage of CTE students
enrolled in the project activities during the grant period, including CTE
students in apprenticeships funded under this project and other grant activities,
and the total number and percentage of CTE students enrolled in high school
and participating in apprenticeships funded under this project.
A third performance measure will be the total number and percentage of CTE
students enrolled in high school and participation in apprenticeships funded
under this project who are identified as members of a special population. C,
which is the total number and percentage of CTE students enrolled in high
school, and participating in apprenticeships funded under this project who
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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complete high school. And the total number and percentage of CTE students
enrolled in high school and participant in apprenticeships funded under this
project who own post-secondary credits during enrollment in the project.
Now, remember, applications must be submitted through grants.gov before the
deadline, which is 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on July 17, 2018. 4:30 p.m. and
one second Eastern Time is late. We cannot stress this enough. It doesn't
matter if you are in the system and in the process of uploading the documents
at 4:30 p.m. You must have submitted the application, the complete
application, before 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date.
The Federal Register Notice is available. If you haven't downloaded it, you'll
want to do that today. And if you haven't already, go to grants.gov today and
download the application and instructions under CDFA 84.051 E. That's
84.051 E. This is your next very important step after downloading and
reading the Federal Register Notice and that is to read the grants.gov
submission procedures and tips for applicants.
If you have applied for other discretionary grants, you may already be familiar
with grants.gov. If you haven't submitted via grants.gov in a while, you'll
want to familiarize yourself with the changes, particularly the switch to
Workspace. If your agency has never submitted an application via grants.gov,
you need to get started now on that registration process.
If you're an eligible state agency, someone in your agency's grant office may
be able to submit the application on your behalf, but you should also have one
or two members of your own team registered and become familiar with the
grants.gov system. The point is you need to identify someone now who can
submit the application when the time comes, which according to the tip sheet
should be a day or two before the deadline. You may also want to identify a
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
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knowledgeable backup person in case your primary person is unable or
unavailable.
Grants.gov encourages all applicants to register early, submit early, and verify
your submission. We have a grants.gov submission procedures and tips for
applicants that has information on registration, browser support, and
information about the type of PDF files that must be uploaded is important.
Again, the electronic application that you must submit has several
components. The application instructions that you will download from
grants.gov repeats a good deal of information from the Federal Register
Notice, but also includes important information and instructions about what
should be included in each part of the application.
Applications should be organized in the manner described in the economic
application submission checklist that you'll find in the application package.
Please note the suggested 35 page limit set forth in the Federal Register for the
project narrative. Also, the recommendation that you organize your project
narrative according to the selection criteria and make explicit connections to
the absolute priority and requirements.
It's important to provide enough information in your budget narrative to
justify your budget expenditures. Per reviewers will also consider the budget
information you provide. The application package instructions for the budget
narrative include several specific instructions that will assist you as you work
through your budget, including instructions for personnel costs.
These are the documents the applicants will need in order to submit an
application. We have talked at length today about the Federal Register notice
and went quickly through the application and instructions. Regarding
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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Department of Education forms and instructions, please go to our ed.gov
website to download the instructions for the required form. Grants.gov
includes the required forms and instructions for some forms but not others. So
it's important that you go to ed.gov for additional instructions. You will find
the instructions for all the forms in the links in this slide, which if they are not
clickable, this whole slide deck will go onto cte.ed.gov by the end of this
week. The application package does also include program specific
instructions for completing the form.
Regarding the budget, this program has a prohibition against supplanting,
which means applicants under the pathways to STEM apprenticeship program
are required to use a restricted indirect cost rate. For more information on
restricted rates, applicants should download the additional indirect cost
information in example for grants under restricted rate program, which is
available in the links in the slide deck.
Finally, here's contact information for the program. This is my contact
information. I'm the program manager for this opportunity. Happy to answer
any questions I can through email, but we'll actually take some questions now
if you could type it in the Q&A box. We will read them off. And if by
chance, we don't have the opportunity to answer all of the questions today,
please go ahead and just send it through the email and we'll get back to you as
soon as possible.
So go ahead and start with some of the questions that have come in already.
So the first one is can a consortium of rural schools apply? Must the Oregon
Department of Ed apply? So can a consortium of rural schools apply or must
the Oregon Department of Ed apply? Some folks in the room, do you have an
answer there? Cori?
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
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Corinne Sauri: Sure. So for this one, the eligible entity in this case is (Perkins) State Eligible
agencies. So in this particular example, in Oregon, the Oregon Department of
Education, eligibility is in Section 111 of the Federal Register Notice. That's
Page 23-267.
Erin Berg: So the answer is no. So the next question is, Cori, is the expectation that
apprenticeships be designed so that high school students start and complete
the apprenticeship while still in high school?
Corinne Sauri: Okay. So this one, if you look at program requirement two, program
requirement two is where we lay out the requirements for the implementation
of the comprehensive STEM apprenticeship pathway strategy for this
program. It does not - what it says is a grantee must carry out a
comprehensive pathways to STEM apprenticeship plan strategy that seeks to
increase the number of CTE students how participate in a competency based
apprenticeship program.
The expectation is not that high school students be required to start and
complete apprenticeships while enrolled in high school. If you have a project
design that does do that, that's allowable, but the requirement is limited to
increase the number of CTE students who participate in competency based
apprenticeships while enrolled in high school.
Erin Berg: Okay. Do we have any other questions written down?
Corinne Sauri: There was one. Must the project be administered by a government agency or
can a 501(c)3 apply and the answer is no, a 501(c)3 cannot apply. The only
eligible applicants are the Perkins eligible state agency.
Erin Berg: Okay. There's a question of should sub-grants be competitive?
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
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Corinne Sauri: Sub-grants are allowable under this competition but I don't believe we
specified that they had to be competitive.
Erin Berg: Can funds be used for salary and travel expenses for students?
Corinne Sauri: I think we would need to think about that. The Perkins Funds, Perkins does
have requirements about what Perkins Funds can be used for students who are
members of special populations and I think we would want to take a look at
that and see if those rules apply for this project. I believe funding for support
services are an appropriate and allowable expense under Perkins for students
who are members of special population.
Erin Berg: We've had a request to show the budget slide again, reference what is on the
notice.
Corinne Sauri: There is a question on the chat, can a college or university be considered an
employer partner. I guess the question would be is the - would a college or
university be an employer partner that is interested or able to offer a
competency based apprenticeship. I could see - I believe our thinking was
that a college or university would be a post-secondary partner. If an applicant
thinks that they would be an employer partner then the onus would be on the
applicant to explain what the role of that employer partner is in offering a
competency based apprenticeship.
Woman 1: Does apprenticeship mean specifically U.S. Department of Labor registered
apprenticeship? No, it does not mean that in this project. If you can see the
definition in the definition section, I think everyone should take a really close
look at the definition section that starts on Page 23-266. The apprenticeship
definition there means an arrangement that includes a paid work component
NTT DATA INC (US)Moderator: Robyn Wood
06-05-18/1:00 pm CTConfirmation # 7483169
Page 17
and an educational or instructional component wherein an individual obtains
workplace relevant knowledge and skills.
So that is our definition there and then I think further, it's important to look at
the definition for competency based apprenticeship, which means an
apprenticeship program that enables apprentices to progress through and
complete the program by demonstrating mastery of the knowledge and skills
taught in the program rather than complete a minimum number of work or
instructional hours. Those are the two definitions that are relevant. For this
definition, we do not use the registered apprenticeship definition.
Throughout the webinar, there have been references to various kinds of work
based learning, internships, apprenticeships, et cetera. Is the focus of this
grant on apprenticeships, earn and learn only, or do other work based learning
experiences count?
Woman 1: So again, I think an important thing to look at is the two definitions and then
again program requirement two. Those are going to be the two places where
you think about strategy and apprenticeship, and apprenticeship in terms of
competency based apprenticeship and the definition there on Page 23-266.
Erin Berg: Can funds from this grant be used to incentivize the development of the
intermediary? Can the business or intermediary be a partner in the
application?
Corinne Sauri: Can you reread the question again?
Erin Berg: Can funds from this grant be used to incentivize the development of an
intermediary? Can a business or intermediary be a partner in the application?
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Corinne Sauri: It is up to the applicant to determine what partners they think are necessary for
implementation of their proposed project designs. The two required partners
have already been covered in the webinar and also included in the Federal
Register notice, that is the post-secondary and the employer. I believe the
onus - I don't think there's anything in the notice that would preclude or
prohibit using - proposing to use grant funds to incentivize an intermediary
but the onus would be on the applicants to explain why that is necessary and
why that would be beneficial to their proposed project design.
Erin Berg: Another one from the chat, which is for the spirit of this project, is a pre-
apprenticeship synonymous with apprenticeship?
Woman 1: So I would say, again, it's really important to look at the two definitions for
apprenticeship and competency based apprenticeship. We don't define pre-
apprenticeship but we - I don't know that those pre-apprenticeship would fit I
within those definitions.
Erin Berg: Question from the Q&A. For the post-secondary institution can it be an entire
system letter of support or would it be better to submit a letter from each of
the 13 colleges? If you had 13 colleges in your system.
Woman 1: I think that would be…
Erin Berg: (Unintelligible).
Woman 1: At your discretion. I think that we'll have reviewers who will be looking at
those letters of commitment as part of your project design. So that's an
applicant's discretion.
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Erin Berg: Just to clarify on the pre-apprenticeship question, I think - I'm sorry, pre-
apprenticeship activities or pre-apprenticeship could be a part of your project
design. It just wouldn’t meet the - it would be unlikely to meet the
requirements and the definition of apprenticeship.
Is it expected that the program have an uncapped number of participant
students or is it okay for us to cap the number of students early on?
Woman 1: Again, I think this is a question about applicant discretion. I think you'll need
to make some decisions about what your project design is ultimately going to
be. You will be held to whatever you propose in your project, so please think
about the scope and the number of students you'd like to have participate in
the project.
Erin Berg: Do sub-grantees need to be named in the application?
Woman 1: I believe we have flexibility on that. I'm looking that up for you.
Erin Berg: Okay. Here's a quick question. There's a question asking if only grants will be
awarded? Can you confirm this? That's approximately five. It depends on
the funding slate and the available funding and what's requested. But we
expect around five.
Woman 1: So getting back to the sub-grantee question, a question of whether or not an
applicant would have to name its intended sub-grantees in the application.
You may name sub-grantees in the application. This is all on page 23-267
under eligibility information, which is Section 3. You can see that section
under sub-grantees.
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Erin Berg: And would a post-secondary institution include regional occupational program
or center? It would depend on how it's defined in your state and there is a
definition of an institution of higher education.
Woman 1: Post-secondary education institution is a defined term. So in the definition
section, that's something that you'll want to take a look at and make a decision
about whether or not your proposed partner would meet that definition.
Erin Berg: From that chat, (Michelle Voll) with CVS Health asking about sponsored or
registered apprenticeship. Do pharmacy technician apprenticeships qualify
under STEM careers? We're also considering a new apprenticeship program
for IT roles.
Woman 1: So I think I've seen a few questions about STEM and computer science in the
questions. So while we don't have a definition in the definitions section about
STEM, you can look at the absolute priority and that's where we talk about
what STEM is. And we are looking at projects that are designed to improve
student achievement or other educational outcomes in one of the areas of
science, technology, engineering, math, or computer science. So the onus will
be on the applicant to show that their proposed project meets that requirement,
that absolute priority.
Erin Berg: And probably was just answered, but would the employee partner have to
currently offer apprenticeship in computer science or can the partner be an
employer that offers apprenticeships in other areas? I assume as long as
they're also STEM fields it doesn't have to be in computer science. It can be
any of the other STEM fields.
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Under the Rural Local Educational Agency, can you explain more about the
invitational priority? I can go back to that slide. So this is the invitational
priority as written in the notice inviting application.
Woman 1: I'm not quite certain I understand what the question is but I think the question
might be asking what we're looking for about in an invitational priority. So an
invitational priority is something that we are looking - we are seeking projects
that meet the invitational priority. We don't give any extra points and we don't
give preference when we do receive applications that discuss the invitational
priority but we are interested in looking at applications that address the needs
of rural LEAs.
Erin Berg: So there's a question asking is it mainly for school system to apply at the high
school level or not a college sponsored? I mean it should be at the state level
to be the applicant, which is the only (unintelligible) state eligible agencies are
eligible to apply. So you should work with your state and high schools and
colleges can be partners. A college or another post-secondary institution must
be a partner.
Any other questions? Is the employer partner compensated for the apprentice
training?
Corinne Sauri: There is some guidance in the application package about proposed costs for
the project. I think that one thing that applicants have to think about is what
the purpose of this initiative is and over a three-year period if an employer is
compensated for offering an apprenticeship then what is the likelihood that
that would continue after federal funding ends.
I believe there - and if you look at the selection criteria under adequacy of
resources, one of the things that applications will be judged on is the level of
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support and commitment from partners to the implementation of the project.
So I would think that applicants would want to look at that as well in terms of
the level of assistance that the employer partner and other partners would be
contributing to the success of this project.
Woman 1: And I think just to add on, program requirement two, I think it's a good place
to take a look. This implementation of a comprehensive STEM
apprenticeship pathway strategy. If you look at number three and four, it talks
about developing or supporting the development of curricula that can be used
for related CTE instructions as part of a competency based apprenticeship. It
also allows you to think about providing support for professional development
for teachers, post-secondary instructors, employers, training providers, and
others to promote development and implementation of new competency based
apprenticeship opportunities. I think both those places might be places you
could think about building out that strategy.
Erin Berg: There's a question for someone who arrived late. We did cover this already,
they are asking if there is a preference for non-rural. There is no preference
either way. It's an invitational priority. So we encourage projects to target
rural areas but there's no points or no set asides.
Along the same lines, there's a question in the chat asking will there be any
regional or geographic factors in determining who will be awarded a grant,
rural states set aside. So no. And also unrelated to rural, there's no set asides
or no guaranteed distribution.
Getting a few questions that we've already answered. Again, computer
science does not have to be part of the grant. It's okay to focus on other
STEM occupations and would applications with more employer partners,
would that lead to a higher application score? I think it would all be about
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how you explained to the reviewers why that would make it a superior project.
There's only requirement for one employer partner with a letter of
commitment. If you choose to have many, it would be really more just judged
on how you show that that's a positive factor in your application.
To my colleagues here who are monitoring the chat versus the Q&A, anything
else? Okay. I think there maybe have - oh, there's more questions. Can
applicants see the rubric evaluators will be using? That's right in the notice
inviting applications. We're pulling the rubric from the selection criteria that I
just pulled a slide back up. So within those three categories and then the
points, if you go into the notice inviting applications or in this slide deck.
This is exactly what they're being asked to evaluate your application using.
But we'll go ahead and if we missed anything between the two different - in
the chat or the Q&A, please feel free to write me an email and we will get you
an answer back as soon as possible. The main mailbox that's monitored by the
group is [email protected]. You're welcome to email me
individually as well. My information is there and then my phone number is
there as well.
So with that, we'll go ahead and end this webinar. Again, the slides and the
transcript will be posted by the end of this week and looking forward to
working with you all. Thank you.
END