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The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation describes the strategies implemented by the Rounds 1 and 2 TAACCCT colleges. The introduction provides an overview of the grant program, the national evaluation, and the implementation study. The next part of the report provides an overview of the Rounds 1 and 2 colleges that received grant funding—single institution grant colleges, colleges that led consortium grants, and colleges that were members of consortia—and the range of approaches and activities they implemented, based on an online survey. Then, the report provides an in-depth examination of 17 Round 2 colleges and the projects they implemented, based on fieldwork conducted during their fourth and final year of their grant activities. It documents the targeted industries, project designs, participants, the implementation of the local projects, the partnerships developed, and the lessons learned from the perspectives of the directors, staff, faculty, partners, and participants. The report concludes with a discussion of the key findings for the Rounds 1 and 2 colleges, highlighting implications for future workforce and community college initiatives.

Research Questions

• What are the types of emerging ideas for service delivery improvement and/or system reform that seem the most promising for further research?

Key Takeaways

• In designing their local projects, colleges began by identifying the industries they would focus on for their grant activities—the top three being manufacturing; health care and social assistance; and professional, scientific, and technical services (primarily information technology).
• At the colleges visited, staff involved in the grant activities used labor market information on job growth to identify employers that were “economic drivers” in their local areas and regions.
• Programs of study and other activities funded by the grants reached many individuals in need of new, industry-relevant skills.
• Over three-quarters of the colleges also targeted unemployed and underemployed workers (a particular focus of the colleges visited), veterans, low-income individuals, and adults with low education levels.
• Colleges reached potential participants most often through recruitment materials (e.g., flyers and advertisements), referrals from the public workforce system (a resource highly used by the colleges visited), and from employers and industries sending their employees.
• The range of designs and strategies used by grantees and member colleges reflects both the impetus of the grant announcements as well as the instructional, assessment, and support service models that were gaining attention in the workforce development field nationwide.
• Colleges implemented strategies to help participants accelerate their progress through and completion of grant-funded programs.
• Work-based learning was also a key instructional component for many Rounds 1 and 2 colleges.
• Most colleges developed and provided remediation services and other supports.
• Colleges packaged multiple evidence-based components into their grant-funded programs of study.
• Creating career pathways programs became a core part of the TAACCCT grant program for the Round 2 grant announcement, but many of the colleges across both Rounds 1 and Round 2 built out part or all of a career pathway as part of their grant activities.
• A common activity of the colleges was developing stacked and latticed credentials, a key element of the career pathways model.
• Another key component of building career pathways programs was the involvement of employers and industry representatives in developing curriculum and credentials to ensure pathways reflected occupational requirements.
• The grants funded technology that allowed colleges to align programs of study with current occupational requirements in ways that would not have been possible otherwise.
• Simulations of work settings, especially for manufacturing and health care training programs, were also common enhancements to the technology-enabled learning environments among Rounds 1 and 2 colleges.
• Colleges had to work with many stakeholders within and outside their institutions to make programs of study relevant to industry requirements while enabling working adults and those with families to participate and succeed in college.
• Colleges developed internal partnerships to support newly developed or enhanced courses and instructional design and to help participants enroll in and complete their programs.
• Nearly three-quarters of all colleges involved employers, industry associations, and chambers of commerce in the local grant projects in some way.
• Another major type of partnership developed by the colleges was with the public workforce system.

Citation

Eyster, L., Hafford, C., Trutko, J., Cohen, E., Mikelson, K., Durham, C., O’Brien, C., Martin-Caughey, A., Briggs, A., Nguyen, K. (2019). Urban Institute. The Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program: Implementation of the Rounds 1 and 2 Grants (Research Report). Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.