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The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it will award $450 million in job-driven training grants to nearly 270 community colleges across the country via the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) competitive grant program, which is co-administered by the DOL and Department of Education. The awards are to support community college-industry partnerships that will expand and improve education and career training programs offered at community colleges across the country. The intent of the program is to align community college degree programs with the needs of regional industry and help job seekers get the skills they need for in-demand jobs in industries such as information technology, cyber security, health care, energy, and advanced manufacturing. This round of TAACCCT grants will allow the 270 awardees to partner with more than 400 employers from across the county. Read the press release…

New partnerships are needed between the IT community, government and institutions of higher learning to help bridge the American skills gap, according to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). In a letter to the president, PCAST notes that online solutions could provide people without secondary degrees with the training needed to fill high-demand IT jobs. Recognizing this need for accessible, lifelong learning resources, the Markle Foundation launched Rework America, a new $50 million effort to create online high-tech job training and entrepreneurship initiative.

President Barack Obama signed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) into law on July 22 – a federal-wide reform effort designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy. WIOA is the first legislative reform in 15 years of the public workforce system. It will take effect July 1, 2015 – key implementation dates for Department of Labor. It supersedes the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 and amends the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, the Wagner-Peyser Act, and the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998. Highlights of the new act:

Lawmakers approved funding for a bond program that dedicates $50 million for re-tooling community colleges with the latest equipment, but failed to pass a larger proposal that would allow universities to compete for $100 million in bond funds for capital improvements to enhance engineering programs. The budget also includes $2 million to establish a new fund for global marketing of Michigan’s automotive sector and support of public-private collaborations with the auto industry.

In 2012, U.S. science and engineering graduate programs saw a small 1.7 percent drop in enrollment by U.S. citizens and permanent residents, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Enrollment by foreign students, however, rose by 4.3 percent. NSF notes that 2012 is the second year in a row that saw very little increase in citizen enrollment, following five years of growth in the range of 2-3 percent. Enrollment by female graduate students, who make up about 43 percent of the total graduate student population, decreased by 0.1 percent, the first decline for that group in 10 years. Strong growth in a few engineering fields, including chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and materials engineering, led to a rebound in overall engineering enrollment following a decline the previous year. Read the report…

The Department of Labor (DOL) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced programs that will provide financial support to help states and regions assist key industries and small businesses compete in the global economy through the development of regionally focused workforce development and export assistance programs.

Investments and policy to support innovation-focused agendas have flourished with the close of the 2014 legislative sessions in several states. Crowdfunding legislation, incentives for attracting talent, higher education affordability, punishing patent trolls, and encouraging greater accountability are some of the areas where lawmakers focused their efforts.