Kudos to our friends at Montgomery College for providing dependable, affordable child care support services to parents pursuing degrees. Montgomery College's Beverly Walker-Griffea, senior vice president for student services, was recently quoted in a Community College Times article titled, "Child Care Remains a Barrier for Many Student Parents." In particular, Ms. Walker-Griffea noted that providing child care is "key to completion" for student mothers. The article chronicled the results of the American Association of University Women's (AAUW) Women in  Community Colleges: Access to Success report, a study well worth the read.

Does having a college degree really help you weather a recession? According to this article in the New York Times, that answer is a resounding yes. But earning a four-year college degree may mean that you'll be taking a job usually held by workers with less skills or credentials.   

In this article in the New York Times, colleges are offering students the ability to take remedial and basic education courses online rather than in traditional classrooms. Are MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) the new cure to helping students of all income levels get the basic ed skills they need to be successful in the classroom and their careers? From what we can tell, that answer is debatable but it's certainly one worth exploring.    

A recent article by the Community College Times announced the unveiling of the Department of Homeland Security's new internship program for college students, the Cyber Student Initiative. According to the article, "The initiative...is designed as an unpaid student volunteer program for current community college students and student veterans pursuing a program of study in a cybersecurity-related field." Applications are due May 3rd.

If you haven't checked out DOL-ETA's Workforce Innovation Fund page for a while, you're in for a surprise. DOL launched a Workforce Innovation Fund Portal on Workforce3One.org earlier this month. It's visually stunning and user friendly, to boot. Kudos to the design staff at DOL-ETA. We're bookmarking this page!

Big thanks to the Maryland Department of Transportation for hosting today's Accelerating Connections to Employment (ACE) initiative's Bidder's Conference at their headquarters in Hanover, MD. The Bidder's Conference was the only opportunity for interested parties to ask questions regarding the Request for Proposal issued last week. Questions and Answers from today's conference will be posted shortly. 

The Maryland Workforce Corporation (MWC) announces the release of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for Career Navigator Technical Assistance Services for the Accelerating Connections to Employment (ACE) initiative. Check out our Competitive Opportunities page for more information.

The Maryland Workforce Corporation (MWC) announces the release of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Cross-site Data Collection and Case Management System for the Accelerating Connections to Employment (ACE)
initiative. ACE is a multi-state initiative designed to strengthen the capacity of the public workforce system to help low-skilled individuals build basic and occupational skills and enter into a career pathway and employment by integrating basic skills, occupational training, student support services, and employment assistance. The deadline for proposal submission is 12:00 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) on April 4, 2013.

Over 70 education, workforce, research, and foundation professionals convened at Four Points by Sheraton at the BWI Airport for an all-day partners meeting of the Accelerating Connections to Employment (ACE) initiative. Partners from Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; New Haven, Connecticut; and Maryland were in attendance. The ACE initiative's independent third-party evaluator, ICF International, presented on ACE's randomized controlled trial (RCT) process; and MWC staff presented on the grant's administrative functions, from reimburse
 

MWC was praised in a recently released national research report conducted by the Mathematica Policy Research
(Mathematica) for the US Department of Labor (DOL). In “Insights from the Recovery Act LMI [Labor Market Information] Grants,” Mathematica found MWC’s role as the administrative entity and fiscal intermediary of the MARC Green Consortium (MARC) pivotal to the consortium's success. According to the research report, Maryland, DC and Virginia all “identified the MWC and the fiscal organization of the project as a “major strength” that “improved overall efficiency.”’ Click here for a link to the reports and our press release.