[ad_1]
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new $24 million funding opportunity to support workforce training programs focused on training for clean energy jobs that do not require a four-year degree. Announced.
Under the banner of the Biden administration’s Invest in America policy, community colleges, labor unions, and labor-management partnerships can now apply for funding to establish Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs). IAC has two missions.
- IAC organizers offer free energy assessments to small and medium-sized manufacturers with fewer than 500 employees to identify opportunities to save costs, reduce energy waste, and improve productivity.
- The evaluation and subsequent implementation projects provide students, apprentices, and current workers with hands-on, experiential learning opportunities that increase skill acquisition and provide a path to energy jobs that do not require a four-year degree. Spread it out.
“More than half of the jobs created by President Biden’s U.S. investment policy will not require a college degree,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in an email announcing the IAC funding.
In November 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected the first community college and union to receive funding to establish an IAC, the first since the program’s creation in 1976. This expansion is made possible because of the foundation of the bipartisan Infrastructure Act. DOE’s efforts to help students and institutions understand career preparation pathways to clean energy jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree.
Small and medium-sized manufacturers, which account for more than 90% of the country’s manufacturing, often partner with two-year colleges for job training. However, most community colleges and unions are unfamiliar with applying for, obtaining, and effectively managing DOE grants.
Accordingly, as part of the 2024 IAC recruitment, applicants will be eligible to apply to the IAC program in one of three tracks, depending on the applicant’s readiness:
- Track 1: Up to $200,000 each will be awarded in one-year initial planning and capacity building awards to institutions planning how to establish future IACs with the aim of applying for a Track 2 award in 2025.
- Track 2: Provides $500,000 to $2 million in three-year implementation and scale awards for existing career training programs to become IACs.
- Track 3: $4,000,000 in three-year consortium and cohort awards to facilitate groups of universities, state systems, multilocal union projects, apprenticeship brokers, and their IAC-eligible partners to establish multiple IACs at once. From $7,000,000.
DOE plans to re-run the IAC solicitation in the future to allow Track 1 recipients to apply for Track 2 or 3 funding in the next cycle. This creates an avenue for community colleges and unions to gradually learn how to serve as her IAC hosts and expand relevant work-based learning opportunities for students and employer partners.
Additionally, the IAC recruitment will be managed by ENERGYWERX, an intermediary organization contracted with DOE. ENERGYWERX helps support applicants with limited experience with funding opportunities in DOE’s various agency programs.
New America’s Initiative on the Future of Work and the Innovation Economy monitors federal opportunities for community college training and union capacity building for emerging industries; We previously published a primer to help two-year colleges seek IAC funding. This primer outlines how IAC applicants can find and partner with their existing IAC, leverage the IAC Center of Excellence, and strengthen relationships with employers before applying.
On March 5th, ENERGYWERX will host an informational webinar for prospective IAC applicants. Applicants can check the details of his IAC application through the dedicated portal or contact info@energywerx.org.
Biden administration puts community colleges and unions in the spotlight
IAC’s funding announcement is the latest way the Biden administration has prioritized support for community colleges and labor unions as part of its Invest in America Plan.
Investing in America includes funding programs and related support activities related to four recent major infrastructure bills: CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, and Inflation Reduction Act. point.
Last month, the White House partnered with the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Education, and Labor and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to host a briefing for community colleges to highlight funding and guidance related to the administration’s Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Sprint. Ta.
Meanwhile, First Lady Jill Biden, a community college instructor, joined NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan to announce the agency’s 10 CHIPS Act-funded Regional Innovation Engine Award recipients at Forsyth Technical Community College. The NSF Engine Program is the agency’s most extensive grant program and the most extensive investment of its kind by the federal government.
Prior to the engine’s announcement, NSF used CHIPS Act funding to create the Directorate of Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships, its first new division in more than 30 years. Since its conception, the Directorate has emphasized the need to support community colleges more than ever before. Since then, the agency has delivered on that promise by creating a new grant program for two-year colleges that are active in regional innovation ecosystems and emerging technology job training. These programs include a focus on capacity-building grants and direct program funding.
Joe Biden, who claims to be the “most pro-union president in history,” has also prioritized labor unions as a sponsor of his administration’s investment policy in the United States.
The Department of Energy’s $7 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub program, funded by bipartisan infrastructure legislation, had a strong emphasis on worker involvement. Last fall, the National Economic Council held a series of conferences focused on strengthening collaboration between labor unions and community colleges. These meetings led to an AFL-CIO brief calling for stronger workforce partnerships between unions and local universities.
Will a path to a job outside of a degree work?
It remains to be seen how the moves made as part of the Biden administration’s U.S. investment policy will translate into job opportunities and career access for people without a bachelor’s degree.
A study led by economist Robert Pollin estimates that 61 percent of the jobs created by the bipartisan infrastructure law would not require a college degree. The same is true for 58 percent of the jobs created by the Inflation Control Act and 44 percent of the jobs created by the CHIPS and Science Act.
Unfortunately, employment of workers without a degree has stagnated, even as companies and governors have announced that they will eliminate the requirement for a bachelor’s degree to get a job. According to a 2024 study by the Lumina Foundation, short-term training that leads to significant pay increases has declined. Anthony Carnevale of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce warned Americans to be wary of advice to stop pursuing college degrees, especially given the political climate. Apprenticeship training holds great promise, but its expansion is bottlenecked by a lack of funding, awareness and availability.
Yet community colleges and unions are now benefiting from new opportunities, funding programs, and partnership resources to play a greater role in both degree-based and non-degree workforce training in a variety of infrastructure-related industries. . These opportunities include new funding to meet labor market needs in the clean energy economy.
follow me twitter Or LinkedIn. check out my website.
[ad_2]
Source link
