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The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation focused on Round 3 TAACCCT colleges that summarizes key findings based on a survey of all Round 3 colleges that participated in the grants, totally 187 colleges, and interviews and focus groups conducted during site visits to 14 Round 3 colleges. This final report presents findings from the Round 3 implementation study. The study describes how the colleges built capacity to provide innovative education and training programs and pathways and supported participants’ educational outcomes. The implementation study also examines colleges’ progress towards the three main goals of the grant program, highlighting the successes and challenges to date and implications of these findings that can be useful to policymakers, practitioners, and others wishing to replicate the strategies implemented by the TAACCCT colleges.

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Research Questions

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

Key Takeaways

• The grants supported the colleges’ efforts to build their capacity to serve adult learners through increased staffing, new and enhanced curricula, expanded access to student supports, and improved training facilities with updated equipment.
• Most colleges visited spent a significant part of the planning phase creating new or enhancing existing curricula that would be responsive to the skill needs of employers.
• Over 80 percent of colleges embedded stackable and latticed credentials and over half supported transfer and articulation into programs to support advancement along a career pathway.
• The grants seemed to help colleges develop strategies to accelerate learning and improve persistence in programs of study for adult learners by creating learning environments to support participation outside of traditional classroom settings and scheduling.
• Work-based learning was a central feature of programs for many colleges to provide participants with job-related skills through hands-on practice.
• Colleges sought to build and enhance supports for adult learners to persist and complete their programs of study, but also help them transition to new jobs or positions within their company.
• Employer and industry contributions to the grant project helped colleges better align grant funded programs with employers’ workforce needs.
• Colleges could also better serve participants through partnerships with other external organizations.
• Planning and designing grant activities took more time than the six-month planning period for the grant.
• Challenges communicating across members of a consortium appeared to lead to uneven implementation of grant activities.
• Recruiting adult learners prepared for enrollment in grant-funded programs could be difficult as many had work and family commitments or low basic skills.
• At times, there were roadblocks to engaging new employer partners and increasing or sustaining the level of involvement of existing partners to aligning programs with industry needs.
• Partnerships with the public workforce development system did not always materialize as planned.
• While colleges had plans to sustain many of their programs and other activities after the grant ended, the lack of certainty around funding made it difficult to fully institutionalize various components of the projects.

Citation

Eyster, L., Mikelson, K., Hafford, C., Trutko, J., Durham, C., O’Brien, C., Matin-Caughey, A., Briggs, A., Trutko, A., Nguyen, K. (2020). Urban Institute. Implementation of the Round 3 Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants. 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.