June 21, 2017
On June 15, President Donald Trump issued an
executive order to expand apprenticeships in America and “provide more
affordable pathways to secure, high paying jobs by promoting apprenticeships
and effective workforce development programs.”
The executive order is designed to make American education and workforce
development programs more effective in
preparing American workers to “fill both existing and newly created jobs and to
prepare workers for the jobs of the future.”
A copy of the executive order may be accessed here.
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The Trump Administration’s budget request for
the U.S. Department of Education was the subject of testimony by Secretary
Betsy DeVos, on May 24 in the House of Representatives, and on June 6 in the
Senate.
The budget request is shaped by five
principles. They are (1) providing
“significant new resources” to help achieve the goal of “ensuring that every
child has the opportunity to attend a high-quality public school selected by
his or her parents”; (2) recognizing the importance of continuing strong
support for public education through state formula grants “focused on meeting
the educational needs of the Nation’s most vulnerable students, such as poor
and minority students and students with disabilities”; (3) continuing funding
for important competitive grant programs supporting innovation and building
evidence on “what works” in education; (4) reducing the complexity of federal
student aid programs and applications while giving priority of funding to make
a college education more affordable for low-income students; and (5)
eliminating or phasing out 22 programs that are “duplicative, ineffective, or
are better supported through State, local, or private efforts,” in addition to
the six additional programs that were eliminated in the Every Student Succeeds Act, for a total savings of $5.8 billion.
DeVos emphasized her and the administration’s
commitment to “expanding educational options for students and parents, in
particular for low-income families, by providing a whole menu of educational
options both in our public school systems and by promoting greater access to
private schools.” For more
information on DeVos’s testimony, click here.
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Forty-two governors have delivered their 2017 State of the
State addresses, and workforce development and CTE have emerged as strong
priorities. In fact, they were the second most popular education topic
mentioned in the addresses, after school financing. But, while the need for CTE programming
aligned to labor market demands is high, many states and local school districts
are reporting significant shortages of CTE teachers.
In
response to input from the field, on June 13, 2017, the Office of Career,
Technical, and Adult Education in the U.S. Department of Education announced a
new $3.6 million grant opportunity to address state and local shortages of high
school CTE teachers, the High School CTE Teacher Pathway Initiative. This new initiative is intended to improve
CTE programs assisted under the Perkins
Act by increasing the number of high school teachers for CTE programs that
align to in-demand industry sectors or occupations in states and communities
where shortages of such teachers exist.
For
more information about this grant opportunity, please see the Federal Register notice.
Note:
Applications are due July 28, 2017.
Register
here for the
pre-application webinar to be held on June 22, 2017, at 2 p.m. ET. This
webinar will also be recorded and posted on the Perkins
Collaborative Resources Network.
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The new National Academies Press report Building
America's Skilled Technical Workforce finds that the United
States’ “skilled technical workforce is inadequate to compete in the coming
decades, and actions are needed to improve education, training, and lifelong
learning of workers.” According to the report, skilled technical occupations, or
“occupations that require a high level of knowledge in a technical domain but
do not require a bachelor’s degree for entry”—are a key component of the U.S.
economy.
This report examines
the supply and demand dynamic. It finds that skilled technical workers can be
found in most occupational groups, from health care to construction to
manufacturing, and such jobs as medical laboratory technicians, installation
and repair technicians, and computer support specialists. And, while the
term “middle skills” is often used to describe these occupations, the report
finds that the term fails to fully capture the actual high value of this
segment of the workforce.
The “broader
need for policy information and advice,” is examined and an in-depth study of “the
coverage, effectiveness, flexibility, and coordination of the policies and
various programs that prepare Americans for skilled technical jobs” is
presented. The report also includes action-oriented
recommendations for ways to improve the U.S. system of technical education,
training, and certification.
Read the full
report online or download the PDF version from the National Academies website here.
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The Occupational Information Network (O*NET), under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and
Training Administration, has recently released updates to its database and keyword
search.
These updates include the following:
- Eighty alternate titles related to 40 occupations were added from professional association and customer input, transactional analyses, and occupational code requests.
-
Eighty technology skill examples related to 54 occupations were added from employer job postings.
O*NET consumers can now use “hot technologies”
as search terms to find occupations and careers across the O*NET websites. The new updated data and keyword search are
incorporated within My Next Move,
Mi Próximo Paso, My Next Move for Veterans,
O*NET OnLine, and O*NET Code Connector.
To learn more or to download the
database, please access the O*NET Resource Center.
Developers may also access the latest data and updated keyword search from O*NET Web Services.
For a complete description of the
updated search, interested parties are encouraged to review A Weighted O*NET Keyword
Search (WWS).
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The podcast series “Voices of TAACCCT
College Presidents” presents community college presidents discussing the impact
that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community
College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program, has had on their colleges.
TAACCCT is administered in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education
and spans the years 2011–18. This series explores the leadership mindset and
strategic approach that several community college presidents have taken to
scale and sustain the impact of TAACCCT at their institutions.
Over 700 colleges were funded through TAACCCT grants in four
rounds. Grants were designed
to help community colleges and other eligible institutions of higher education
expand and improve their ability to deliver education and career training
programs that can be completed in two years or less. The grants support
colleges in retraining dislocated workers and other adults for employment in
high-wage, high-skill occupations. More than 8,000 educational materials
created by grantees are available as open educational resources on www.SkillsCommons.org.
The first three podcasts in the series
are available on SkillsCommons, and may be found here. The remaining
four podcasts will be added to this SkillsCommons page on a weekly basis, so be
sure to check the website frequently!
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The Institute
of Education Sciences (IES) is pleased to announce upcoming
training opportunities to help researchers use data from the OECD Program for
the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) Survey of Adult Skills to address
questions about adults’ information processing skills in technology-rich
environments. Training
Researchers to Use PIAAC to Further Multidisciplinary Research
is a hands-on, interactive training conducted by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and supported through
a grant from IES, the independent research and statistics arm of the U.S.
Department of Education. The training aims to prepare researchers to use
PIAAC data and IES data tools for further, independent, policy-relevant
research in such fields as education, gerontology, sociology, public health,
economics, workforce development, criminal justice and corrections education.
This August, ETS
will begin holding one-day and three-day PIAAC trainings
in four U.S. cities. These trainings will culminate with an IES/ETS-sponsored
conference in Washington, D.C., in December 2018, where participants will have
an opportunity to present their research.
What does the PIAAC include?
The PIAAC
data, which in the U.S. were collected
by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), include information about
adults’ education backgrounds, workplace experiences and skills, occupational
attainment, use of information and communications technology, and cognitive
skills in literacy, numeracy, and problem solving.
When
is the training? How do I apply?
The next training will take place in Chicago from
Aug. 30–Sept. 1. Visit the ETS training website for more information
about the program and the most up-to-date
schedule. Registration is open and can
be completed online.
For more information
about this training project, contact Meredith Larson, program officer,
National Center for Education Research or refer to IES’
blog, Inside IES Research
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