April 2021

Dislocated Worker and Federal Adult Programs

Carry Forward Requests:

• Providers may request a waiver to carry forward more than 20% of their allocated PY20 funds into the next program year using the provided template. Providers who expend or obligate at least 80% of their PY20 formula funds by the end of the 4^th quarter do not need a waiver.
• Please submit your waivers by June 7^th to allow enough time for leadership approval.

COVID-19 National Dislocated Worker Grant RFP

• RFP was released on March 17, 2021; Proposals are due Friday, April 2, 2021
• A total of $2,060,00 will be available for grants.
• The funds will be used to provide employment and training services to Dislocated Workers, and pay the wage and benefits for individuals who will be placed in temporary employment in Disaster Recovery Humanitarian Jobs.
  • Total enrollment goal: 256
  • Disaster relief position: 156

Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP):

• As of March 19, 2021, participants are returning to work after being at home and on emergency paid sick leave (EPSL) since November 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A conference call was held March 24, 2021 to review the return-to-work guidance.
• MN DEED has a new SCSEP provider, The Center For Workforce Inclusion (“Center”), through the end of PY20. The Center is managing the service area previously managed by Experience Works.
• The PY21 SCSEP appropriation was signed in December 2020. SCSEP was funded at $405 million. The USDOL plans to send the allotment TEGL by April 1.
• The USDOL may allow a waiver for national and state grantees who do not meet the 10% match requirement for PY20. DEED reports its match in aggregate. We will write and submit the waiver request, if needed.
• PY19 Data Validation is underway. Thank you to everyone for scanning and sending your participant files securely and confidentially. We will reach out if we have any questions about the files, but there is nothing more you need to send to us. The USDOL’s deadline to complete data validation is June 3, 2021.
• Please watch for an email about the participant pre-survey satisfaction letters. It will include the participant sample list and instructions on how to assemble the letters. (Reminder: Host agencies do not receive pre-survey letters.)
• Contact Heather Moore at heather.moore@state.mn.us or 651-259-7560 with your questions. 

Monthly Financial Status Report (FSR) / Monthly Reimbursement Payment Request (RPR):

• Due 20 days after month end. For example, the June RPR (June 30 end date) is due July 20.
• Report accrued monthly expenditures.
• A monthly RPR/FSR is required even if no funds were expended.

Quarterly Progress Report (QPR):

• Due 30 days after quarter end. For example, the Quarter 1 report (September 30 end date) is due October 30.

Performance Update:

IMPORTANT DATE: Program Year 2020 Data Freeze Date is scheduled for July 9, 2021. Please have all your data entry up to date including all Measurable Skill Gains achieved by your participants during the timeframe of 07/01/2020 – 06/30/2021 entered into Workforce One no later than close of business 07/9/2021.

UPDATED GUIDANCE

Please see the Incumbent Worker Training and the Employed Pending Exit Guidance attached for important information on these topics every counselor needs to know.

Program Year (PY) 2020 Quarter Two (Q2) Performance Outcomes compared to Negotiated Goals

Attached you will find the performance outcome spreadsheets for Total Dislocated Worker, State Dislocated Worker, WIOA Dislocated Worker, DWG, and WIOA Adult programs. These are best when printed landscape, in color, and on 11x17 size paper.

• Performance goals based on WlOA negotiated standards for PY2020
• Color Key:
• Blue are the negotiated performance standards
• Green means the set goal was met or exceeded
• Yellow means at least 50% of the goal was met
• Red means less than 50% of the goal was met                  
• Served is all participants accessing the program during the actual program year (real-time)
• Getting a Job results based on exiters July 1, 2019 – December 31, 2019 except those exited with exclusion. This indicator measures each exiter's employment status during the 2nd quarter after exiting the program. Formula: Percent of employed exiters divided by all exiters during the reporting period.
• Keeping a Job results based on exiters January 1, 2019 – June 30, 2019 except those exited with exclusion. This indicator measures each exiter's employment status during the 4th quarter after exiting the program. Formula: Percent of employed exiters divided by all exiters during the reporting period.
• 2nd Quarter Median Earnings results based on exiters July 1, 2019 – December 31, 2019 except those exited with exclusionary reason and those showing zero earnings. This indicator measures the median earning during the 2nd quarter after exiting the program.
• Credential Attainment results based on exiters January 1, 2019 – June 30, 2019 except those exited with exclusionary reason and those who did not attend credential type training. This indicator measures the percent of participants who received a credential after attending training. 

Performance FAQs:

Question: When talking about specific grants why should I use the language of “participants accessing the grant” instead of “participants enrolled in the grant”?

Answer: In the Dislocated Worker program, a participant enrolls into the program, not into any specific funding category or funding stream. DW program enrollment determines what funding categories the participant is eligible to access during their enrollment period (WIOA or State or WIOA and State).

After a participant is enrolled into the DW program they begin receiving services. Those services are tracked within their Workforce One (WF1) activities.

In those activities, a funding stream is selected which indicates the grant being used to financially support that service during the timeframe of that activity (start and close date).

Most all participants ride the funding stream rollercoaster throughout their enrollment period as allocations begin/expire, mass layoff projects open/close, DWGs start/end, and sometimes simply to balance budgets between State and WIOA funding sources.

Activities are opened, closed, and sometimes reopened when participants start accessing a service, when they stop accessing a service, and sometimes when they resume or start accessing a service again.

Example of participant services tracked in activities: A participant immediately receives career counseling, employment plan development, and begins an intensive job search. The counselor opens the Career Counseling, Individual Plan Development, and Staff Assisted Job Search in Area activities within the participant’s WF1 case record with the start date those services began (usually the date of enrollment or soon after) and the funding stream that will financial support those career services.

After participating in an intensive job search for a couple of months, the participant decides they need to increase their marketable skills. They meet with their counselor and receive approval to attend full time credentialed training. The counselor opens up the Classroom Training activity with the date class begins and notifies the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Division that a training plan is approved. Thirty days prior to the start date of the approved training, UI will change the participant’s questions from work search related to training related. Thirty days prior to beginning training and while the participant is attending the full-time training, the Staff Assisted Job Search in Area activity should be closed since the participant is not searching for work at that time. When the participant completes their training, the Classroom Training activity should be closed with the last date of training and a Staff Assisted Job Search in Area activity should be open with the date the resumed that service.

Example of funding stream changes in activities: Activities are also opened, closed, and sometimes copied/reopened when the funding source changes within the activity. Open activities cannot show an expired or exhausted grant as the funding source supporting them because that money is no longer available.  Program year allocations last for 2 years, projects and DWGs typically last for 2 years but can end sooner or last longer. If a participant’s activities are supported by the PY19 allocation, those activities will need to be closed no later than 06/30/2021 since that is the expiration date of the PY19 grants. If the participant will continue receiving a service that was supported by an expired grant, a new activity will need to be created on their case record. The start date of the new activity will be the date the new grant began supporting it, 07/01/2021, and its grant name.

Should you have any performance or data entry questions, please contact the Federal Adult Programs Performance Coordinator, Amy Carlson, at amy.carlson@state.mn.us.

Adult Career Pathways (ACP)

Legislative Direct Appropriation Grants/ Competitive Grants SFY20/21

State Legislators have begun meeting and the ACP team is watching it closely as the final budget will determine SFY22-23 program budgets. We expect RFPs to be released summer 2021.

The ACP Team released a Tech Training Pilot Project RFP on March 11th, with a due date of Thursday April 8th. This is a new program within ACP serving adults 18-30 and targeting underrepresentation of BIPOC communities in the Technology field. 

Follow the link to view open RFPs and sign up to receive notices from this page as well: https://mn.gov/deed/about/contracts/open-rfp.jsp

SNAP E&T 50/50

The ACP team continues to work with our eight SNAP E&T 50% Reimbursement Grantees for SFY21 providing 50% reimbursement on expenses already incurred through ACP’s Pathways to Prosperity and Mn Family Resiliency Partnership (DHP) programs.

Mn Family Resiliency Partnership (formerly known as Displaced Homemaker Program)

What is a Displaced Homemaker?

“A displaced Homemaker is an individual who has spent a substantial number of years in the home providing homemaking services and

i) has been dependent upon the financial support of another; and now¹ due to divorce, separation, death or disability of that person, must find employment to self-support,

or

ii) derived a substantial share of support from public assistance² on account of dependents in the home and no longer receives such support.”

Participants must also meet Income guidelines (at or below 200% FPG.)

Workforce One Tips      

Workforce One User Guide
The ACP team is working to update the ACP Workforce One Guide to reflect updates and changes to programs in the past two years. Stay tuned for the updated guide!

Guidance on Workforce One use

Math/Reading Assessments
A reading and math assessment is required for participants prior to starting any certificate, credential, or post-secondary training. Participants with an Associate Degree or above are exempt from this requirement. Regardless of academic/grade level assessment, grantees are responsible for ensuring that participants are academically prepared to be successful in their training program.

Acceptable reading and math assessments include:

• Standardized academic assessments that meet the guidelines of the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) – Adult Basic Education (ABE) Office or the Minnesota State College and University (MnSCU/MinnState) System. Currently, these include:
  • The Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) for English Language Learners and ABE students.
  • The Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) for ABE students
• Tests listed on the Federal Register as approved for use in the National Reporting System.
  • This list may be updated regularly, scores will be accepted if the test was listed on the register at the time of administration
• Any other official assessment that translates math and reading scores to a grade level may be used with review and prior written approval by DEED.

ACP Operations Guide

ACP’s Operations Guide is now available from the ACP home page. The Guide documents current practices for ACP.  The ACP Team meets monthly to discuss suggested additions, modifications, and other changes to the guide and update as necessary. It does NOT include measures implemented in response to COVID-19, which are listed separately.

ACP Team Message to Grantees

The ACP team understands that programs are pivoting during this time. We would like to remind all Grantees that all trainings must be pre-approved by your Coordinator, listed within your contract, and OHE compliant. Please reach out to your program Coordinator if you have any questions. 

ACP Grantee Spotlight

This month, the ACP team is spotlighting the Mn Family Resiliency Partnership provider in Brainerd—META 5, for their unique and memorable execution of an event pairing woman from their program to women in the country of Kuwait. During a 2019 training session, the META 5 director Kimberly Pilgrim, and a director of a similar program in Kuwait met and started talking. They soon realized that even though they and their participants are a world apart physically, the issues faced by the women they serve are basically the same.  Of course, there are cultural differences, but the two directors developed a plan to not have culture be a negative or dominant issue during the workshop.  The results of an exciting 6 months of planning took place with an online Zoom workshop with 10 women from Minnesota and 10 women from Kuwait participating in various exercises. The workshop lasted six hours and covered essential life skills necessary to move their families into economic self-sufficiency with an added cultural competency component.  At the conclusion of the workshop and all the months of planning, both Directors felt that the experience was extremely valuable, memorable, and life-changing for all who participated. Plans are underway to conduct another workshop sometime in the future.  The META 5 Minnesota Family Resiliency Program is helping to make the world a little bit smaller by providing valuable transformative opportunities for program participants.

Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL)

When searching for WIOA supported training, what is the best tool to use?

The Career and Education Explorer, specifically the Education Explorer, does not have any duplicate applications. The Education Search taps the ETPL database directly. The WIOA certified column is needed for counselors. WIOA certification is Minnesota’s flag for credentialled training (which is needed for appropriate WIOA documentation of training towards the federal credential attainment measure).

There is not a spreadsheet with the ETPL, and if anyone has made one ETPL Administration can guarantee you it is out of date. The ETPL changes daily because Minnesota has rolling applications and reviews for training providers eligibility, as well as their programs and courses. To join the ETPL, eligible training providers need to meet federal eligibility criteria, opt-in to the list, and meet continuing eligibility requirements outlined in WIOA and related federal guidance.

I like the layout of other tools better, can I use them? CareerOnestop and O*Net are NOT the ETPL. These resources do not have eligibility criteria, the opt-in, or relationship with the organizations’ they’re scraping information from. The resources they list are NOT the ETPL, though there is overlap. ETPL Administration does not recommend use of these tools for documenting WIOA training.

ETPL Administration has been laying groundwork with on how we can improve the Career and Education Explorer next year to make it better and bring it up-to-date, so stay tuned for opportunities to share feedback and your perspectives on what works well, and what could work better when supporting Title I training.

Labor Market Information

By The Numbers: Robust Growth in Minnesota

Job growth in 2021 is expected to be robust in Minnesota as more people are vaccinated and as dining, recreation and other opportunities expand while official restrictions continue to be eased and people resume more activities. In fact, the state is forecasted to add roughly 123,000 jobs between the fourth quarters of 2020 and 2021. Still, because of the deep economic damage caused by the pandemic, a return to full pre-pandemic employment is not expected to take place until late 2022.

As the past year has shown, Minnesota’s short-term jobs forecast is linked to the trajectory of the coronavirus and to a lesser degree to federal relief spending. Both factors are looking highly favorable right now with the recent passage of another round of fiscal stimulus, the American Rescue Plan Act, and as the vaccination rollout gains speed. Robust GDP growth is expected to be propelled by strong growth in consumer spending, equipment investment, residential construction, and government consumption and gross investment. High savings, pent-up household demand, another round of stimulus checks and falling unemployment as job growth accelerates will boost consumer spending. The upbeat outlook is tempered by the possibility of virus variants generating another COVID-19 case spike. An uptick in cases is also possible before widespread immunity is achieved through vaccinations.

The 4.4% increase averages out to a gain of 12,000 jobs a month compared to the 20,000 monthly job gain averaged since last May. A 4.4% job gain this year would put 2021 into the top 10 as far as annual job growth in Minnesota (data goes back to 1950) and be the highest since 1984, another point when we were emerging from a deep recession.

Job growth for the most part will continue to be concentrated in industries that were hardest hit by the pandemic (see Figure 2). Job gains are expected to be highest in: Food Services and Drinking Places; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation; Local Government Education; and Accommodations. These face-to-face industries were the most disrupted by the pandemic and will bounce back robustly as the state turns the corner in its battle with the virus and spending on dining out, travel, tourism, recreation, sporting events and live arts performances begins to rebound. Employment in most direct consumer-facing industries, however, will still be in the 85 to 90% range of pre-pandemic payroll numbers. The jump in Local Government Education employment (public elementary and secondary schools) is based on students returning to the classrooms full-time in the fall. Occupations concentrated in face-to-face interaction industries as well as occupations that are widely spread across all industries are expected to expand payrolls the most. Food Preparation and Serving related occupations and Education, Training, and Library positions are examples of face-to-face occupations that are expected to see hiring ramp up. Increased demand for Office and Administrative Support staff and Transportation and Material Moving staff are examples of the numerous employment opportunities expected to be generated by strong growth across most industries. Job growth in 2021 is expected to be robust in Minnesota as vaccination rates swell and business restrictions are continue to be lifted. As we have painfully experienced, the job rebound wasn’t the fast V-shape rebound that was initially hoped for due to the continued impacts of the pandemic. Job market damage in Minnesota has been deep and has lasted long enough that even after a solid job bounce this year, complete recovery will take through 2022. You can read the full article from Dave Senf here: https://mn.gov/deed/newscenter/publications/trends/march-2021/q4-jobs-forecast.jsp

Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA)

Staffing Update

Introducing our newest TAA Specialist, Hony Yang started as a TAA Specialist on March 17. She comes to DEED from Catholic Charities; before that, she worked at PeopleReady and Best Buy Mobile. Hony holds an AAS in Human Resources.

Roundtables for Dislocated Worker Counselors

Minnesota TAA will host virtual Roundtables for Dislocated Worker Counselors April 13-15, 2021. There are two 1-hour sessions each day over three days. Please register via the GovDelivery invite sent on March 23. This is the schedule:

Tuesday, April 13

• 10:00am-11:00am: Final Rule implementation
• 1:00pm-2:00pm: *TAA overview

Wednesday, April 14

• 10:00am-11:00am: Waivers and TRA
• 1:00pm-2:00pm: *Training applications, Labor Market Information (LMI)

Thursday, April 15

• 10:00am-11:00am: “Other” training topics (*school justification, Training Progress Reports, Computers, Tools, *Transportation, TAA/DW/customer roles, etc.)
• 1:00pm-2:00pm: OJT, *Job Search Allowance, *Relocation Allowance

*Changes to existing process expected from Final Rule

Choice of Training Institution

Pursuant to 20 CFR 618.610 Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) customers must meet certain eligibility criteria related to the choice of training institution. TAA has updated the Choice of Training Justification Worksheet and is the process of incorporating the justification into the TAA training application. This will be discussed at the upcoming Roundtables in April. Customers should do a comprehensive comparison of all available school programs for the training they seek. Training approval is based on the following in this order:

Shortest training completion (Criterion 6)
Customers should seek the soonest available training and training that results in the soonest training end date.

Available at a reasonable cost (Criterion 4 and 6)
Customers should select training that is available at a reasonable cost in comparison to other similar training programs. A higher cost training may be considered if the completion date of training is sooner than other programs at a lower cost.

Is within the local commuting area (Criterion 4)
Customers should select training that is within their local commuting area (15 miles one-way) unless the training can be completed in a sooner timeframe or is available at a lower cost than local training.

Summer Credits and TRA Eligibility for TAA Customers

In order to remain TRA eligible through summer, TAA participants must be full-time students (as defined by the school) and not have a break greater than 30 business days between classes. Minnesota State institutions define full-time for TAA students during the summer as six credits. The University of MN and private institutions have different criteria. DW Counselors, please have TAA participants check full- time requirements of their learning institutions if not attending a Minnesota State school. As always, send UI/TRA-related questions to deed.tra@state.mn.us

So, what happens when the school doesn’t provide degree focused classes during the summer? TAA asks students to explore options that will enhance their education or career. This may require taking an online course or taking a course from another institution that will transfer to the primary institution. TAA will pay tuition, books, and required fees of non-required classes but reserves the right to limit reimbursements for coursework that is merely satisfying the full time credit requirement but not enhancing student education or career. For example, TAA will not pay for a digital camera for a Digital Photography class or athletic shoes for a walking class. Requests will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Co-enrollment Activity

With the addition of the new “TAA Co-Enrollment” activity, it is no longer necessary to create the mirroring training activity. MN TAA will open the activity once it has been determined that a DW participant is eligible under a TAA-certified petition.

Petitions

Check the status of petitions with U.S. Department of Labor 

• Recently certified
  • 96688 – Torax Medical, Saint Paul
• Recently denied
  • 95467 – Wisconsin Central LTD /Canadian National, Proctor
• Pending DOL’s investigation
  • 96651 -- DeCare Dental, LLC. a subsidiary of Anthem Companies, Inc. Eagan
  • 95764 – Landis Gyr, Pequot Lakes

We want this e-Newsletter to meet your needs! We encourage you to send your comments, suggestions and subscription requests to deed.taa@state.mn.us. Find past issues of Partner Express.