Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge (JIAC)

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PROtoCOL—trainer/frontline staff

Site Visit Information

Cluster name:		Cluster ID:
Date of site visit:		Site visit round:
Site visit team:

Instructions for the Site Visit Team

Prior to going on the site visit, try to identify the most-salient activities conducted by the grantee for ETA, and request to meet the trainer/frontline staff for that activity. The language in this protocol has been drafted for frontline staff involved in training. Please adapt it as necessary (by replacing the word training with grant) when interviewing frontline staff involved in nontraining or non-ETA activities.

Respondent Information

• Respondent name:

• Respondent title and position:

• Respondent affiliation:

• Respondent contact information:

• Respondent background. What is your professional background (for example, training, experience)?

• Respondent involvement in cluster. What are your responsibilities related to this grant? How long have you been involved in conducting grant activities?

Grant Activities

1. What kinds of training activities are you conducting under the JIAC grant and why?

Content, scope, and duration activities. What kinds of training activities have you conducted using the JIAC grant (for example, short-term courses, certificate courses, training culminating in a degree)? What topics do you cover? [IF RELEVANT] How do these fit in with the other training activities conducted by your organization under the JIAC grant? [GET COPY OF SYLLABUS IF AVAILABLE]

Goals. What are your goals in conducting this training? From your perspective, how does this training contribute to the goals of the cluster?

2. How were these training activities designed?

Activity design. How were these training activities designed and developed? Were they created specifically for the JIAC grant, or are they an extension of existing activities? If these activities were designed specifically for this grant, who was involved in their development, and what steps did they take?

3. What types of individuals do your training activities serve?

Beneficiaries served. [IF RESPONDENTS HAVE MONITORING DATA ON BENEFICIARY DEMOGRAPHICS, OBTAIN COPIES OF SUCH REPORTS]. What kinds of individuals does your organization serve through this training [for example, incumbent workers, dislocated workers, adult workers]? What is a typical beneficiary like (that is, can you give us a sense of the age, gender, and race of grant beneficiaries)? How do participants in grant-funded training activities compare with participants in other training activities usually conducted by your organization?

4. How does your organization conduct recruitment and intake? How does it promote inclusion of underserved populations?

Recruitment and intake. How does your organization recruit participants for training? What types of outreach does it conduct? How does it conduct intake? What application procedures, if any, do participants need to complete? What eligibility criteria does your organization apply to select among applicants (for example, what are minimum requirements related to educational or employment histories, prerequisite classes, basic skills or advanced skills tests)? Does it require any pretraining activities as a prerequisite for training receipt (for example, career counseling, completion of assessments)? How does it determine what type of training is appropriate for each participant?

Inclusion. Is your organization taking any specific steps to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented and excluded groups? From your perspective, how successful are these efforts?

Grant Monitoring

5. What metrics does your organization use to monitor activity progress?

Metrics used. What are the main metrics that your organization is using to measure progress for the training activity that you conduct?

Frequency and method of data collection? What is your role in collecting data on these metrics? How frequently do you or your organization collect these data? How are these data collected?

6. What steps are taken to ensure high quality data collection on outcomes?

Data validation by your organization. What steps does your organization take to ensure high quality data collection? To what degree does your organization validate information submitted by your frontline staff?

Data validation by cluster administrator. Are you aware of any steps that the [NAME OF CLUSTER MANAGER] or [NAME OF FUNDING STREAM ADMINISTRATOR] take to verify the accuracy of the data that you submit? Do they conduct case reviews? Do they require supporting information for aggregate outcome measures that you report? To the best of your knowledge, do they systematically review the data that your organization provides? Do they impose any penalties for submitting incomplete or inaccurate data?

7. How easy is it to track and report on monitoring data?

Ease of reporting on grant metrics. Which metrics are hardest to track? Which ones are easiest to track? Did you or your organization face difficulties in tracking and reporting on grant metrics? If yes, please describe these challenges. What steps did you or your organization take to resolve them?

8. What was the rate of outcome achievement?

Cluster progress. To what degree has your organization made progress toward key target outputs and outcomes for the activities that you help conduct?

Determinants of progress. What has helped or impeded your organization in making progress toward achieving these target outputs and outcomes?

Reliance on and Utilization of Support from Federal Agencies for Grant Activities

9. What support do other cluster partners provide to your organization for this training activity? What is the quality of this support?

Interactions with other partners. Do you have any interactions with any of the other partners in this cluster? If so, could you please describe them?

Cluster role in providing technical assistance. Have cluster partners (that is the cluster manager, funding stream administrator, or other partners) provided any technical assistance or other supports for this training activity? If yes, what kinds of assistance did they provide? How is this support provided? Who initiated this technical assistance (that is, did your organization request assistance, or did your cluster partner reach out to offer it)? How useful was this assistance?

Lessons Learned

10. What are the lessons learned from grant implementation?

Facilitating factors. What factors have facilitated training activities conducted under the grant? What are the greatest strengths of the cluster? What do you believe are your greatest successes?

Impeding factors. What factors have impeded training activities conducted under the grant? What are the limitations of the cluster? What have been your greatest challenges?

Lessons learned. What three things would you change about how your organization and/or the cluster implemented grant training activities under the grant?

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