US Department of Labor announces more than $12 million in grants for states to build workforce databases

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the availability of more than $12 million in competitive funding to states through the Workforce Data Quality Initiative. Grants funded through this competition will be used to create longitudinal workforce databases and improve the quality and breadth of the data within existing systems.

"Developing longitudinal databases will allow states to improve the availability and use of high-quality workforce data," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "This initiative is a key part of the administration's efforts to demonstrate how a linkage between education and employment leads to better long-term outcomes for America's workers."

Authorized by the fiscal year 2010 Appropriations Act, the Workforce Data Quality Initiative grew out of the Obama Administration's desire to increase the effectiveness of the nation's workforce and education systems. Approximately 12 awards will be made to state workforce agencies. The amounts of grants will differ but may be up to $1 million for single states and up to $3 million for multi-state consortia.

Grantees will be expected to achieve multiple goals during the three-year grant period. These include developing or improving state workforce longitudinal data systems with individual-level information; enabling workforce data to be matched with education data to create longitudinal data systems; improving the quality and breadth of the data in the workforce data systems; using longitudinal data to provide useful information about program operations; analyzing the performance of education and training programs; and providing user-friendly information to consumers to help them select the training and education programs that best suit their needs.

The grant competition announced today is closely related to a sister initiative, the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems program administered by the U.S. Department of Education. Applicants are encouraged to develop or expand their collaborative efforts with state education counterparts in building systems that will capture both workforce and education data. For more information on the Department of Education initiative, visit http://nces.ed.gov/Programs/SLDS/.

To view the solicitation for grant applications, visit http://www.doleta.gov/grants/.