TEGL_20-17_Acc.pdf

ETA Advisory File Text

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION ADVISORY SYSTEM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Washington D.C. 20210 CLASSIFICATION Workforce Information CORRESPONDENCE SYMBOL DNPTTA Workforce Information DATE June 22 2018 RESCISSIONS None EXPIRATION DATE Continuing ADVISORY TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT GUIDANCE LETTER NO. 20-17 TO STATE WORKFORCE AGENCIES STATE WORKFORCE ADMINISTRATORS STATE LABOR COMMISSIONERS STATE AND LOCAL WORKFORCE BOARD CHAIRS AND DIRECTORS STATE WORKFORCE LIAISONS STATE LABOR MARKET INFORMATION WORKFORCE INFORMATION OR RESEARCH DIRECTORS FROM ROSEMARY LAHASKY s Deputy Assistant Secretary SUBJECT Program Year PY 2018 Workforce and Labor Market Information Grants to States WIGS Program Guidance and Deliverables 1. Purpose. To provide program guidance for the development management and delivery of workforce and labor market information WLMI funded through the WIGS. 2. References. Paperwork Reduction Act PRA of 1995 Pub. L. 104-13 and 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520 2 CFR Part 200 and 2 CFR Part 2900 Uniform Administrative Requirements Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Section 508 as amended 29 U.S.C. 794d Training and Employment Guidance Letter TEGL No. 16-17 May 21 2018 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act WIOA Adult Dislocated Worker and Youth Activities Program Allotments for Program Year PY 2018 Final PY 2018 Allotments for the Wagner-Peyser Act Employment Service ES Program Allotments and Workforce Information Grants to States Allotments for PY 2018 TEGL No. 6-17 January 24 2018 Modification Requirements for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act WIOA Unified and Combined State Plans TEGL No. 4-17 September 22 2017 Change 1 of December 22 2017 Program Year PY 2016 Workforce Labor Market Information Grants to States WIGS Policy and Program Guidance and Deliverables and TEGL No. 15-14 December 19 2014 Implementation of the New Uniform Guidance Regulations 2 3. OMB Approval. To conform with the PRA the President s Office of Management and Budget OMB has reviewed and approved this information collection OMB Control Number 1205-0417 whose authorization expires May 31 2020. Under 5 CFR 1320.5 b an agency cannot conduct sponsor or require a response to a collection of information unless the collection displays a valid OMB Control Number. 4. Fund Allotments Goals and Objectives. The Employment and Training Administration ETA previously published PY 2018 allotments for WIGS in TEGL No. 16-17 on May 21 2018. Please refer to this TEGL for specific allotments by state. Note that hereafter the term state also includes the District of Columbia Puerto Rico and the outlying areas . Each year ETA funds these WIGS and specifies grant requirements. State workforce agencies use WIGS to develop and disseminate essential state and local WLMI for job seekers employers educators economic developers and others. The main body of this TEGL describes required encouraged and other allowable activities and explains the rationale for ETA policies and requirements. Attachment 1 summarizes WIGS requirements and includes important administrative details that are not covered in the body of the guidance such as deadlines and submission requirements for grant deliverables. 5. Required Encouraged and Other Allowable Activities. State workforce agencies use WIGS to develop and disseminate essential state and local WLMI for a range of customer groups 1 job seekers 2 businesses employers 3 workforce and labor market intermediaries such as employment school and career counselors and case managers at American Job Centers AJCs who help individuals find a job or make career decisions or engage businesses seeking skilled workers 4 program and service planners at educational institutions and community-based organizations 5 policy makers including state and local workforce development boards WDBs 6 partners such as economic development entities and human resource professionals and 7 other customers including recipients of workforce development grants researchers commercial data providers and the media. Grantees have considerable flexibility to meet customer needs but must consult their customers and prepare several types of products. Required products. Grantees must populate and maintain a database a below produce two types of public products b and d below and ensure staff are adequately trained c below . If the grantee does not produce a required deliverable it must negotiate an extension and a revised schedule with the appropriate ETA regional office. a. Workforce Information Database WID . WID 2.7 was released May 1 2017. The states are required to implement WID 2.7 by June 30 2018. As this is still the most recent WID release no further version implementations are required during the upcoming Program Year. Accurate and reliable data are a cornerstone of the nation s workforce investment system. The WID includes the most important workforce-related data elements and defines them consistently ensuring comparability across jurisdictions. Its variables include employment projections wages educational programs the locations of 3 educational and training institutions contact information for all U.S. employers and state occupational licenses. The Analyst Resource Center ARC an ETA funded grantee which supports consistent LMI data collection has recently published justification for this state requirement at www.widcenter.org why-a-standard-structure . States must use WIGS funds to populate maintain and update the WID and to provide related staff training. Grantees must implement and maintain the most current version now 2.7 of WID and populate all ARC designated core tables. The ARC website www.widcenter.org document all-core-tables describes all required data elements and helps grantees obtain maximum benefit from the WID. ETA uses the WID to offer career information and guidance via a web platform CareerOneStop www.careeronestop.org ETA s suite of national electronic tools for job seekers and labor market intermediaries such as employment counselors employers and many others. b. State and local industry and occupational employment projections. These projections are the most frequently requested type of employment statistic other than the unemployment rate and occupational wages. Projections are used to identify in-demand industries and occupations for career guidance to plan employment education and training and economic development programs as supporting documentation to apply for Federal grants and for many other purposes. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS funds national employment projections but WIGS fund the state and local sub-state projections produced by the states with assistance from ETA and BLS. The employment projections requirements are described in the table following sub- section d below and deadlines for these products are established by the Projections Managing Partnership PMP a state consortium. ETA s requirements do not differ between industry and occupational projections but vary for long-term vs. short-term projections and statewide vs. sub-state projections. ETA grantees who are unable to produce the required projections must report this to their ETA regional office. Grantees must use the methodology software and guidelines specified by the state-led PMP to produce all projections. Additionally grantees must use the Local Employment and Wages Information System LEWIS to provide the staffing patterns for sub-state projections. To meet these requirements grantees may use WIGS funds to obtain training provided by the PMP see https support.projectionscentral.com ARC see www.widcenter.org LEWIS www.lewissupport.com and other LMI-WI-related sources. c. Employee development and LMI training for service delivery. In accordance with section 3 c 4 of the Wagner-Peyser 29 U.S.C. 49b c 4 as amended by section 303 b 2 of WIOA states must provide employee development and LMI training to ensure quality service delivery. Such training should be provided to State workforce agency staff to their local AJCs and WDBs in an effort to promote robust use of Workforce LMI. The training provided and to whom should be identified in the State s Annual Performance report. The provision of LMI training will help support a one-stop 4 delivery system that provides h igh quality and professional services to the job seeker and businesses. d. Annual Performance Repor t. Grantees must submit an annual performance report to their ETA regional office that summarizes all grantee activities and lists the core deliverables and activities shown below in the order indicated by October 1 each year. i. Workforce information dat abase WID ii. Industry and occupational employment projections iii. Annual economic analysis and other reports iv. Customer consultations v. Activities undertaken to meet customer needs vi. New tools and resources vii. License requirement s updates viii. Efforts to create and supp ort partnerships and collaborations ix. Activities to leverage LMI -WI funding x. Recommendations to ETA for changes and improvements to WIGS requirements xi. Brief overview of the required training. e. A statewide annual economic analysis report. ETA regards state e conomic and labor market analyses as essential to plan WIOA and other workforce programs. Therefore ETA requires statewide economic analysis reports and encourages annual publication. However ETA recognizes that conditions may not change sufficiently each year to necessitate an annual report and gives states the discretion to determine their frequency. For years in which a comprehensive economic report is not issued grantees must publish other economic reports of value to state policymakers includi ng the governor and state legislature as well as state and local WDBs . Grantees have broad discretion over the reports contents but they should include anal yses of trends and challenges at both the state and sub -state levels . Examples of topics may i nclude gross domestic product employment growth or decline actual and projected unemployment and other labor market hardship indicators such as low earnings identification of growing and or in -demand occupations and or industries other analyses of important industries and occupations and skill shortages mismatches or deficiencies within the limitations of the available data. The analyses should address the jobless population as a whole as well as the experiences needs and challenges of the targeted populations identified in state planning requirements. ETA will not accept the following submissions for the economic analysis report or its substitute 1 data tables alone 2 job listings 3 maps alone 4 reports done by the grantee for BLS e.g. news releases employment situation reports projections etc. 5 reports solely funded by Federal sources other than WIGS or 6 any publication that does not contain any economic analysis related to that state. 5 The table below provides details regarding the WIGS deliverables for states Deliverable Required encouraged and other allowable activities Due Date Statewide long-term Statewide 10-year projections are required in alternate years. No State 10-Year Projections this year. Statewide short-term Submission of 2-year projections are required each year. ETA also encourages states to disseminate their short-term projections. State may also produce longer projections e.g. 3 4 or 5 years . ETA also encourages states to disseminate these projections. ETA discourages development of 1- year projections March 7 2019 The Two Year Projections is projected to 2020 with a base year of 2018 Sub-state long-term 10-year projections July 5 2019 Sub-state short-term Encouraged but not required activity N A Work Force Information Database WID All States should now be using WID 2.7 June 30 2018 WIGS 2018 Statewide Economic Analysis Report States submit this report to the appropriate ETA regional office. The Economic report should provide web links to any additional economic and labor market reports and products. Because of security all files must be in a Portable Document File PDF format. October 1 2019 WIGS 2018 Annual Report and signed cover letter The Annual Performance Report must have a signed cover letter from the State LMI Director stating the state has fulfilled all the deliverables of the WIGS grant. The State LMI Director is to submit the signed letter and report as separate files to the appropriate ETA regional office. Because of security all files must be in a PDF format. October 1 2019 WLMI Training for the Workforce System ETA requires states to provide LMI training for state and local WDB and AJC staff. The training must promote ETA s LMI goals and objectives. States must submit data as part of their Annual Performance Report to their respective ETA regional office due by October 1 2019 6 Licensing information states must populate the database with the license.dbf and licauth.dbf licensing files States must submit data to the ARC in the manner specified. See http www.widcenter.org supported- activities licenses for guidance. At least every 2 years Encouraged economic and labor market reports and products. ETA encourages grantees to produce other reports and data in addition to those specified above. Grantees have wide discretion in both the topics and presentation format. These reports should include accurate data actionable information and resources that enable job seekers employers staff in AJCs state and local WDBs policy makers and the workforce investment system to make informed decisions about the work-based learning training reemployment and career pathways strategies that lead to worker advancement along a continuum of high-demand and higher wage jobs. Examples of such other products include online self-service tools and other occupational and career guidance resources for job seekers industry- or occupation- specific research data visualizations job vacancy surveys supply demand analysis reports based on analyses of on-line job orders job ads data sources and studies of topics of continuing interest such as labor or skill gaps mismatches or deficiencies. Examples of these reports and products are found on state websites and various US Department of Labor websites. Other allowable activities. While this TEGL requires states to provide LMI training to State workforce agency staff their local AJCs and WDBs ETA also encourages grantees to provide training and technical assistance about various types of WLMI and its uses to state Wagner-Peyser staff WIOA program planners and policy makers and other workforce system stakeholders. The training provided and to whom is to be identified in the State s Annual Performance Reports. The purpose of this training is to assist stakeholders in using WLMI for data-driven program planning and informed decision-making. It also assists such staff to better identify and more rigorously report when participants receive WLMI services to ensure that performance reports better measure the value and impact of WLMI. ETA also encourages grantees to leverage WIGS funds by expanding partnerships among the workforce investment system and education training and economic development communities. 6. Required Methods. Grantees have considerable flexibility in conducting their work but must meet certain methodological standards in collaborating with partners consulting with customers collecting data disseminating statistics maintaining data integrity confidentiality and security and posting their products on the Internet. a. Partnerships. In order to best serve their customers and optimize the Federal investment grantees should establish and maintain partnerships that grantees consider relevant and mutually beneficial. Such partnerships help to increase resources improve program outcomes and help WLMI data influence planning and program decisions. b. Customer consultation. One of the key tenets of WIOA is meeting the needs of businesses and jobseekers. Further WIOA requires states to consult with customers 7 including employers WDBs core partner programs such as education agencies participants students and others about the relevance of the WLMI collected and disseminated. WIGS grantees must consult with customers to ensure the workforce system is providing relevant and integrated information to support decision-making by state and local WDBs and other stakeholders. ETA does not prescribe how to perform outreach but suggests it be performed in collaboration with other workforce system entities that are doing similar outreach such as business engagement or industry outreach staff at the state and local level. Grantees must document these consultations in their grant file and annual performance report. c. Data collection and research methodology. All ETA data collection activities must conform to BLS technical standards and methodologies except when the grantee documents a defensible rationale for an alternative and submits the information to the appropriate ETA regional office before the Program year starts. Information used in reports must 1 be based in part on needs identified through customer consultations and product assessments and 2 come from credible sources that meet professional standards. Multiple sources must be used except when the report is based upon a single survey. Sources must be clearly referenced and or footnoted. Any additional methodologies employed and any variants encountered in the research must also be clearly described. d. Publication requirements. In order to maximize the availability of WLMI products grantees must post grant-funded products reports and workforce information on their websites in a readily accessible manner unless otherwise indicated and meet standard Federal accessibility requirements www.section508.gov . To meet this criterion grantees may use WIGS funding to develop maintain improve or host WLMI websites and other electronic delivery systems. Grantees must also use the approved language in Attachment 2 on products or sites that are funded by WIGS. This language is repeated in Attachment 2 for convenience but is a standard requirement included in ETA grant award documents. e. Information technology IT specifications. To maximize its usefulness any IT system or application developed with WIGS should adhere to industry-standard open architecture principles with documentation and software made available for use by other organizations for Federal governmental purposes. To enhance the reporting of the delivery of both virtual in-person and hard copy WLMI services to customers states are encouraged to work toward greater management information system MIS integration to capture WLMI services provided. 7. Application for Federal Assistance Reporting Requirements. a. Application forms. As noted above please refer to TEGL No. 16-17 for application submission requirements for PY 2018 WIGS grants. Note that this TEGL specifies a due date of July 13 2018 for submission of application forms. b. Other standard forms and files. ETA requires grantees to complete ETA Form 9130 quarterly financial reports within 45 days of the end of each quarter. In addition grantees 8 must maintain their internal grant files in electronic form and make these available upon request to ETA. c. Deadlines. By accepting WIGS funding a state agrees to fulfill all work specified in this guidance including the deadlines. ETA expects grantees to expend WIGS funds using a First in First out FIFO spending system. All funds received from the earliest date are to be completely expended before spending funds received from a later date. Any carryover must be expended before using any new funding. Grantees must expend the funds within the three-year period ending June 30 2021. During the performance period the grantee and the ETA regional office may jointly adjust planned expenditures within the state s allotment. All WIGS expenditures must support the required and allowable activities and conform to reasonable necessary and allocable costs specified in 2 CFR 200 Uniform Guidance see https cfo.gov cofar RUUG . WIGS cannot be used to supplant funding from other Federal or state sources. Please contact your regional Federal Project Officer FPO for technical assistance. 8. Additional Resources. ETA s Labor Market Information Central https lmi.workforcegps.org is the agency s principal repository of technical assistance resources to enhance the use of WLMI. These resources include ETA s Guide to State and Local Workforce Data https lmi.workforcegps.org resources 2015 04 03 15 48 Guide to State and Local Work force Data . This guide provides a directory of links to state and local employment projections and research pertaining to skill shortages mismatches and deficiencies the identification of high growth and or in-demand industries and occupations and how to understand and use data for special populations such as dislocated workers individuals with disabilities veterans and Native Americans. 9. Action Requested. As described in TEGL 16-17 and above to initiate the PY 18 WIGS state workforce agencies SWA are required to submit the SF 424 to Grants.gov by July 13 2018. Per the grant agreement during the course of the year grantees will provide the deliverables according to the requirements and timeframes outlined in Attachment 1. 10. Inquiries. For questions on grant requirements contact the applicable ETA regional office. For financial management questions contact the applicable ETA regional office Grants Management Specialist Chanta Ferrell at Ferrell.Chanta dol.gov or National Grant Officer Serena Boyd at Boyd.Serena dol.gov. 11. Attachments 1. Consolidated Requirements for WIGS Grantees 2. Language for Grant Product Attribution and Intellectual Property Rights