PRTEC’s RtW® Partnership Grant design focus on effectively recruiting and serving long-term unemployed workers, and is built around a comprehensive, up-front assessment resulting in customized interventions across three tracks:
- intensive coaching and other short-term, specialized services culminating in direct job placement into middle and high-skilled jobs.
- short-term training leading to employment.
- accelerated skills training along a career pathway that leads to an industry-recognized credential and employment.
Within these tracks, PRTEC will target programs that include employer-based activities with an earnings component, such as on-the-job training, and other paid work experience, as well as specialized participant services that address the unique barriers facing long-term unemployed workers, such as financial counseling and behavioral health counseling.
These programs will include tangible commitments from employers and other partners to provide employment opportunities, technical skills training, and on-the-job experience and other paid work experience for H-1B occupations. PRTEC has established a network of Regional Employers actively engaged in the project which represent the highest job growth sectors in the western region, Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing.
In line with the authority provided by Congress under the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act (ACWIA), this RtW® grant focuses on preparing and placing individuals into jobs within occupations and industries for which employers are using H-1B visas to hire foreign workers.
Occupations at H-1B skill levels are generally defined as a bachelor’s degree or comparable experience and middle-to-high skill level, and while program participants do not need to have these educational credentials or skill levels to enter the program, they will receive interventions that directly lead to job placement during the grant period in middle and high skill jobs.