The US Department of Labor announced recipients of nearly five hundred million dollars in grant money under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program. All grant recipients have committed to releasing materials produced under Creative Commons Attribution licenses, enlarging the pool of career training OER. The press release, including the list of recipients, can be found at http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20111409.htm

DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) will be hosting two web-chat sessions for the public to provide feedback on the first round of the TAACCCT grant program competition. ETA invites interested individuals to participate in either of the TAACCCT Grant Program public comment sessions, scheduled for:

· Tuesday, October 4, 2011 3:00-4:00pm EDT

· Thursday, October 6, 2011 3:00-4:00pm EDT

To join the public comment session, please use the following link to access the session you are attending: http://www.dol.gov/dol/chat.htm. Note that this link is for both sessions.

A transcript of the listening sessions will be available to the public at www.doleta.gov/TAACCCT after October 12, 2011.

The TAACCCT program is designed to meet industry needs while accelerating individual learning and improving college retention and achievement rates. The overall goal is to increase industry-recognized credential or degree completion rates of participants. Projects were encouraged to use online or technology-enabled learning to achieve these objectives. DOL is implementing the TAACCCT program in partnership with the Department of Education.

For more information about the TAACCCT program, as well as a list of grantees awarded under the first round of grants, visit: www.doleta.gov/TAACCCT