TAACCCT Program at 2016 INNOVATE Conference

COME JOIN US IN NEW ORLEANS – April 20-22, 2016

For

Workshops, Consultations, and Building Sustainable TAACCCT Communities

BACKGROUND: The Department of Labor has invested about $2,000,000,000 in community college programs to accelerate and innovate their workforce development programs for job-driven skills within the TAACCCT (Trade Adjustment Assistance for Community Colleges and Career Training) grant program.   Under a 4 year cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor, the California State University (CSU) and its MERLOT program has designed and is managing TAACCCT repository for the OER content produced by the TAACCCT grantees, called SkillsCommons.org. The CSU-MERLOT strategy is to develop SkillsCommons.org services to:

• Capture and preserve instructional and program support materials produced and/or used by TAACCCT grantees to deliver their innovative workforce development programs.
• Enable discovery of the SkillsCommons.org materials, so others can easily reuse them to accelerate and expand access to workforce development programs.
• Build communities with members from higher education, industries, and local, regional, state, and national organizations to assure the quality and growth in the collection of free, open, reusable, and effective instructional and program support materials.
• Build sustainable organizations and services enabling the longer-term returns on the TAACCCT investments.

CSU-MERLOT will be sustaining the SkillsCommons repository and services beyond the 4-year agreement and to do so, SkillsCommons is taking some first steps in building communities and sustainable organizations that will enable the longer term benefits of the TAACCCT program to be delivered.

Getting Started with INNOVATE

With over 700 institutions as members of the TAACCCT program, a first step will be to bring the prospective members together to develop their industry-sector community strategy. In close partnership with the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), the CSU-MERLOT will be adding the First Annual TAACCCT Community Meeting to the upcoming INNOVATE Conference, April 20-22, 2016 in New Orleans, as a first step. The goals of the meeting will include:

1. Defining the scope and creating draft plans for building industry-sector communities within TAACCCT and supported by SkillsCommons.
2. Providing TAACCCT grantees with the support and infrastructure services to be successful in meeting/exceeding their immediate DOL requirements and their longer term goals for their workforce development programs.
3. Facilitating networking between grantees, non-grantees, industry organizations, and technology companies to help recognize the value of and establish partnerships in advancing workforce development programs.

We realize this is the first time we’re doing this and you all won’t be able to make it but…

HOW DO YOU JOIN US?

• Register as a Conference Participant!
• You can get an early bird discount (if you register before Feb 29, 2106)!
• You can get a MERLOT-Partner discount!

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO JOIN US?   Review the Meeting Agenda!

• SHARE AND CONNECT with other TAACCCT grantees, higher ed institutions, industry organizations and technology companies at our invitation-only sessions and the entire INNOVATE Conference!
• BUILD your industry-sector TAACCCT community in manufacturing, healthcare, information technology, energy, or other industry and grow the benefits of the TAACCCT investments– BE THERE AT THE START!
• GET SUPPORT from the SkillsCommons Support Team and others in the TAACCCT Learning Network to help you be successful on your grant!
• LEARN about design and technology innovations you can apply to your TAACCCT project at the SkillsCommons Makeover Studio and Makeover workshops.
• LEARN about all the innovations in online and blended learning strategies available at the INNOVATE Conference and there’s a new Workforce Innovation Track!