SOURCES SOUGHT
L -- Make it America Grant
- Notice Date
- 4/6/2015
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Labor, Employment Training Administration, Office of Contracts Management, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, N-4649, Washington, District of Columbia, 20210, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20210
- Solicitation Number
- 15-ETA-PDR-CNTR-0020
- Point of Contact
- Crystal Brown, Phone: 202-693-3613, Isabelle Nguyen, Phone: 202-693-3343
- E-Mail Address
-
brown.crystal@dol.gov, nguyen.isabelle@dol.gov
(brown.crystal@dol.gov, nguyen.isabelle@dol.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Competitive 8(a)
- Description
- Make it in America Challenge Grants Evaluation Statement of Work PURPOSE The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Employment and Training Administration (ETA), seeks a contract to conduct a process evaluation as described in the Task Section of this Statement of Work for the Make it in America Challenge grants. Additional information about the grants to be evaluated can be found at: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20132055.htm. This evaluation will examine the partner infrastructures, strategic planning, technical assistance; as well as, workforce development resources used for workers to develop the needed skills, and to help these local community clusters become more attractive locations for business investment. Overall, ETA is interested in documenting successes in measureable project outputs and capacity outcomes, and realized outcomes that lead to building a highly-skilled and diverse workforce to meet employer demand by raising the technical skills of American workers. BACKGROUND In October 2013, ten winners were awarded a total of $20.5 million from the Department for the Make it in America Challenge to spur business investment and job creation in the United States. The Make it in America Challenge grants build upon the bottom-up approaches taken in the Administration's the Jobs Accelerator and Innovation efforts. These efforts are designed to strengthen the economy by partnering with state, regional and local economies. Utilizing the Taskforce for the Advance of Regional Innovation Clusters (TARIC) [i], to coordinate the Federal partnership across multiple agencies, Federal resources were leveraged to support regional economic growth and related cluster industries. The leveraged Federal resources are being used to encourage investment in high-growth industries, spur small business development, and to encourage worker training and job creation. In addition to the Federal partner resources, these grantees are also receiving other non-funding Federal support through SelectUSA and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). SelectUSA partners with U.S. economic organizations to support efforts that attract, bring back, retaining, and expand business investment; and provides information to companies to help them build their business in the United States. The ARC provides post-award technical assistance to help the grantees active success in activities for new and growing business, availability of high-speed internet connectivity, certifications and credentials in competitive new jobs in growth industries for adult workers, and access to overseas markets by Appalachian businesses. Grantees leveraged the coordinated Federal funds awarded from the DOL-ETA, U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST-MEP) at the Department of Commerce, along with the Delta Regional Authority (DRA). The overarching goals of the coordinated, Make it in America Challenge investments are to: •· Strengthen and expand existing strategies and activities and develop new ones that will drive company growth and accelerate high-quality job creation; •· Develop a skilled and diverse workforce through targeted training and employment activities that move workers up and along a career pathway and support the needs of employers; and •· Help ensure companies seeking to invest and grow in the U.S. have access to qualified suppliers with the needed capabilities, capacity and skills. More specifically, DOL-ETA awarded H-1B training grant funds to provide occupational training and training-related activities that are being used to develop a skilled workforce for the targeted industry in each winning cluster. A summary of the DOL-ETA grants awarded is available at the following URL address http://www.eda.gov/challenges/MakeItInAmerica/winners.htm. The funding opportunity allowed the grant award winners to submit one application to leverage the complementary Federal funding sources to support the development and implementation of regionally-driven economic development strategies that accelerate job creation, and to encourage re-shoring of productive activity by U.S. firms, foster increased Foreign Direct Investment, encourage U.S. companies to keep or expand their business and jobs in the United States, and train local workers to meet the needs of those businesses. [ii] EVALUATION OBJECTIVES The overall objective of the Make it in America Challenge grants evaluation is to learn how these awards, through the complementary partnerships, are providing financial and technical support for companies to grow and expand, and improving education and training to develop a skilled workforce for business with high-growth and in-demand job opportunities. Specific research questions in the evaluation will examine how: •1) The grantees utilized an established economic development strategy team that maintains the region economic development planning efforts, developed a collaborative approach the integrated project proposed in the grant award, and developed a sequence of activities for each of the three following project components: •a. Identified an economic development opportunity for business that benefits the supply chain. •b. Engaged the MEP center to conduct market analysis about the supply and demand for the economic development opportunity and provided technical assistance to ensure that suppliers can meet the business needs of companies interested in investment and expand. •c. Partnered with the workforce investment boards (WIB) to identify workforce requirements for the business investment and expansion. •2) Scalable, measureable, and sustainable models were developed to that have the potential to significantly increase the earnings of American workers. ETA is interested in models that address the following questions: •a. Is the Integrated Work Plan with metrics and milestones effective in capturing, reporting, and tracking progress through established baselines and measured impacts? •b. Does the partnership include multiple employers in the identified region and demonstrate a concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, researchers, developers, service providers and other related organizations that are linked by common workforce needs that build upon institutional capacity? •c. Were additional resources and partnerships identified to continue support and sustain the initiative beyond the grant award period? •d. Does the strength of the partnerships and commitment levels demonstrate an advantage in the region's ability to remain competitive and contribute to the successful growth of the targeted industry? •e. Does skills training (including apprenticeship models) result in higher-level skills as evidenced by the achievement of one or more industry-recognized credential(s) and/or significant wage gains? •f. Where credentials are not yet established or available in emerging industries, did the grantees demonstrate how the skills training and/or apprenticeship strategies helped participants achieve significant wage gains? •g. Did targeted training and employment activities support the development of a highly-skilled and diverse workforce? •h. Were new and current workers moved up and along career pathways in high growth industries or occupations for which employers are using H-1B visas to hire foreign workers? •3) How grantees developed, maintained and accomplished project goals that lead to employment for program participants. Were activities developed, incorporated, and sustained to: •a. Utilize agency partner activities such as conducting cluster assessments, preparing supply chain assessment tools, and conducting workforce development asset mapping activities to inform the design and delivery of the grantee's training program? •b. Target and address skills and competencies demanded by employers and businesses that are re-locating or expanding in the area? •c. Provide education and training for jobs that were available in the targeted industry sector for which employers are using H-1B visas to hire foreign workers? •d. Result in an industry-recognized credential as specified by employers? •e. Incorporate program models with demonstrated success in training workers with strong evaluations showing positive participant impacts related to increases in the number of industry-recognized credentials completed or accelerated completion of those credentials, earnings, or other similar evidence-based program evaluation metrics? •f. Track and provide non-public and public reports for eligible participant training and employment outcomes, allowable program activities, and related costs? •g. Utilize tools related to ETA's Industry Competency Model Initiative and/or other ETA web-based resources? •h. Did employers document skills gained by placed in On-the-Job Training? TASKS The contractor will perform the following tasks: •1. Study Design: The contractor will review all documents and other information submitted to ETA by the grantees, including: grant statements of work, progress reports, and reporting information. Based on this review, the contractor will prepare a design for the study that includes draft data collection protocols, such as partner surveys, and interview guides and a site visit plan. •2. Site visits: Site visits shall be conducted to all ten ETA grantee sites, which may also include meetings with the grantee's agency partners. Site visits shall be used to gain in-depth information through unstructured interviews with grantee staff and staff of partnering organizations. The contractor will prepare a site visit plan that includes at least one site visit to all 10 sites and two visits to a few select sites. Site visits should be distributed throughout the grantees' period of performance. •3. Preparation of Reports : The contractor will be responsible for conducting appropriate analyses and preparing reports which communicate the evaluation's findings to a broad audience. •4. Oral Briefings : The contractor shall present up to three oral briefings on the evaluation at ETA's request. Topics could cover the proposed evaluation design, the interim data analyses and reports. These briefings will be provided to ETA officials and possibly other interested audiences. DELIVERABLES The contractor will deliver the following documents at the time specified to the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) designated in the contract. All draft documents will be delivered to the COTR by e-mail in Microsoft Word format. For draft documents, hard copies will be delivered to the COTR upon request. Final versions of all reports will be delivered to the COTR electronically via e-mail in both Microsoft Word and PDF formats by the date specified. The contractor also will deliver ten hard copies of the final report to the COTR by the date specified. Note that all deliverables intended for public distribution must meet the requirements of section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act to provide accessibility to people with disabilities. Monthly Progress Reports submitted electronically. The first such report shall be due thirty days after the contract beginning date and subsequent reports shall be due monthly thereafter. Reports should address monthly progress in terms of completing the tasks specified in the statement of work, identification of problems and plans for the resolution of those problems, and plans for the upcoming month. Final Evaluation Design. A draft evaluation design report shall be due by the end of the third month of the period of performance. The final evaluation design report will be due within one month after the contractor receives comments on the draft from ETA. Interim Report. The report will be due at approximately the mid-point of the contract period of performance, and will present findings related to project design and initial implementation. An outline of the report shall be submitted 90 days before the draft report is due. The draft report shall be submitted no later than 60 days before the final report is due. The final report incorporating ETA comments will be due two months after the contractor receives comments from ETA. Final Report. The final report will be due after completion of the final round of site visits, and will present the final findings as well as include results from the process study. An outline of the report shall be submitted 90 days before the draft report is due. The draft final report shall be submitted no later than 60 days before the final report is due. The final report incorporating ETA comments will be due two months after the contractor receives comments from ETA. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE The period of performance for this contract is twenty-four (24) months from the date of execution by the government. Section 508 Compliance Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended in 1998 by Public Law 105-220 (the Workforce Investment Act), applies to Federal departments and agencies. Section 508 requires that when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use Electronic and Information Technology, they shall ensure that this technology allows Federal employees and members of the public with disabilities to have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to that by Federal employees and members of the public who are not individuals with disabilities. The term electronic and information technology includes, but is not limited to, computers, printers, software applications, telecommunications products [such as telephones], information kiosks and transaction machines, Internet/Intranet sites, multimedia, and office equipment such as copiers and fax machines. To assist Federal departments with complying with the requirements of Section 508, the Access Board http://www.access-board.gov/508.htm developed technical standards and functional criteria for various electronic and information technology. Additional information about accessibility standards related to section 508 may be found at http://www.webaim.org/standards/508/checklist. The document provides the actual standard along with the most widely accepted interpretation for each standard of the Section 508 Web Guidelines. The Department of Labor (DOL) Office of the Chief Information Officer, http://www.dol.gov/informationquality.htm issues guidance, which outlines DOL's policy and provides implementation guidance and links to other resources. All deliverables intended for public distribution must meet the specifications set out below. Where the contract requires the submission of memos and reports or related materials, in addition to printed (hard) copies, digital copies are required to facilitate the retention of electronic copies of these reports for future use, allow for website posting, and meet requirements of section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act to provide accessibility to people with disabilities. In order to meet section 508 accessibility requirements, the Contractor shall provide summary narrative text description or a data table describing each complex graphic (e.g., pie graphs, line graphs, maps, bar graphs, flow charts) in a separate Word/Excel document. Label each figure or graphic with a title and corresponding page number. ETA DISSEMINATION A final submission is a document that addresses or remedies all internal or ETA-initiated peer review recommendations or comments. Further, in any publication, the Contractor shall acknowledge the support of the Department with the following statement: "This project has been funded, either wholly or in part, with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under Contract Number [insert number here]. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement of same by the U.S. Government." Web Posting Unless the COR specifies differently, two digital copies of any report over 25 pages shall be delivered in media readable by Windows-based programs. Specifically, two copies should be delivered: one copy shall be formatted in Microsoft Word and the second shall be in the Portable Document Format (PDF). Color and/or black & white PDFs are acceptable. Do not submit reports in HTML. Printing Currently, ETA does not plan to print multiple hard copies of reports for the public. However, if funds are available, ETA may on occasion select reports for hard copy publication. Permission to Release by the Contractor The Contractor may not publish any works prepared under this Contract without prior written approval of the COTR. However, if the Contractor has requested such approval but has not received a response from the Contracting Officer within nine months after final submission of the report to DOL, then the Contractor may publish their findings with the disclaimer included below. "This project has been funded, either wholly or in part, with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under Contract Number [insert number here]. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement of same by the U.S. Government." [i]
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOL/ETA/OJC/15-ETA-PDR-CNTR-0020/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: US Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20210, United States
- Zip Code: 20210
- Zip Code: 20210
- Record
- SN03690752-W 20150408/150406235155-fdb7c30ac28789aad09fb5c9c0331678 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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