What's New

• February 28, 2012
  ETA posts transcripts, slides, and chat log from the Pay for Success National Listening Session on Workforce3One.
  
  
• February 15, 2012
  ETA announces February 22, 2013 National Listening Session for the Pay for Success Financing Model. Click here for full details and registration.
  
  
• January 27, 2012
  Employment and Training Administration publishes Amendment One to SGA-DFA-PY-11-05 (Workforce Innovation Fund)
  
  
• December 22, 2011
  US Labor Department announces solicitation for workforce innovation fund grants
  
  

What is The Workforce Innovation Fund?

The Workforce Innovation Fund ("the Fund") is one of several new Federal grant programs in which grantor agencies support projects that seek to design evidence-based program strategies. At ETA, two grant solicitations under the Fund will be announced.

The first solicitation will provide approximately $98.5 million in grants to states, local workforce areas, and entities eligible for Section 166 Indian and Native American Program grants to: 1) re-tool service delivery strategies and/or policy and administrative systems and processes to improve outcomes for workforce system customers; and 2) evaluate the effectiveness of such activities.

We believe that innovation at the systems level – where policies, organizational structures, planning processes, performance measurement, procurement, investment priorities, and information management systems reside – is necessary to support service delivery strategies that result in better outcomes and lower costs. In support of this goal, the Administration is seeking new ways to remove administrative, statutory, and regulatory barriers and enable a closer alignment and integration of agencies and programs with overlapping missions and clients.

To learn more about the first Workforce Innovation Fund solicitation, read ETA's Press Release. Additional information may also be found by reviewing Frequently Asked Questions (last updated January 27).

The second solicitation will make up to $20 million available for grants to pilot the Pay for Success (PFS) funding approach. The Pay for Success model is a new way of financing social services to help governments target limited dollars to achieve a positive, measurable impact. It is the goal that the first round of Pay for Success grants demonstrate the viability of this new funding strategy as a tool for state, local and tribal agencies to achieve workforce development outcomes.

To learn more about the Pay for Success model being focused on in the second Workforce Innovation Fund solicitation, see the resources posted under the "Learn More About Pay for Success" section of this page.