Projects with Industry (PWI)

CFDA Number: 84.234
Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants
Also Known As: PWI

The purpose of this program is to create and expand job and career opportunities for individuals with disabilities in the competitive labor market. This is accomplished by involving private industry partners to help identify competitive job and career opportunities and the skills needed to perform these jobs to create practical job and career readiness and training programs and to provide job placement and career advancement.

The program supports projects that demonstrate the capacity to provide job development, job placement, career advancement, and training services for program participants, many of whom are individuals with significant disabilities. Grantees arrange, coordinate, or conduct job readiness training, occupational or job skills training, and training to enhance basic work skills and workplace competencies. Grantees also provide supportive services and assistance for individuals with disabilities in order to maintain the employment or career advancement for which the individuals received training.

The Projects with Industry (PWI) Program creates and expands job and career opportunities for individuals with disabilities in the competitive labor market by engaging the participation of business and industry in the rehabilitation process. PWI projects promote the involvement of business and private industry through Business Advisory Councils (BAC) that identify jobs and careers available in the community and provide advice on appropriate skills and training. BACs are required to identify job and career availability within the community, consistent with the current and projected local employment opportunities identified by the local workforce investment board for the community under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998.

This current-funded program provides job development, job placement and, to the extent appropriate, training services to assist individuals with disabilities to obtain or advance in employment in the competitive labor market. Projects must determine eligibility for services in a manner consistent with section 102 of the Rehabilitation Act.

PWI grants are made to a variety of agencies and organizations, including business and industrial corporations, community rehabilitation programs, labor organizations, trade associations, and foundations. Grants are awarded for a period of up to 5 years and may not exceed 80 percent of the total cost of a project. Awards may be made only to projects proposing to serve geographic areas that are unserved or underserved by the PWI program.

PWI grantees must conduct an annual evaluation of project operations in accordance with the established program standards and compliance indicators at 34 CFR 379 Subpart F. Grantees are required to collect and submit:

1. annual indicator data to determine whether the grant recipient is in compliance with the evaluation standards; and
2. data from its annual evaluation of project operations, including information of the type described in subparagraphs (A) through (C) of section 101(a)(10) of the Rehabilitation Act, as determined appropriate by the Commissioner.

In order to receive continuation funding for the third and subsequent years, grantees must demonstrate progress toward meeting the objectives of their approved grant application and demonstrate compliance with the performance indicators by submitting data for the most recent complete project year. If a grantee does not demonstrate compliance on the basis of the previous year's data, the grantee has an additional opportunity to demonstrate compliance with the standards by submitting data from the first 6 months of the current project year.

Program Compliance Indicator and Annual Data

Who May Apply: (by category Other Organizations and/or Agencies.

Who May Apply: (specifically) Applicants may include: employers (for-profit and nonprofit); nonprofit agencies or organizations; labor organizations; trade associations; community rehabilitation program providers. Indian tribes or tribal organizations, state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies, and any other agencies or organizations with the capacity to create and expand job and career opportunities for individuals with disabilities..

Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: May 27, 2008.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: July 28, 2008.

Applications must be submitted electronically through the e-GRANTS system at http://e-grants.ed.gov unless an applicant has received a waiver of the electronic submission requirement. See the Federal Register notice below.

Download the application package:

MS Word (763KB) | PDF (451KB)

For printed applications contact:

ED Pubs
P.O. Box 1398
Jessup, MD 20794-1398

Telephone: 877-433-7827
TDD: 877-576-7734
Web site: ED Pubs Web
E-mail: edpubs@inet.ed.gov

Other Required Federal Forms

You will also need to download the following required federal forms:

• ED Form 424--Application for Federal Education Assistance (Form and Instructions)
• ED Form 524--Budget Information, Non-Construction Programs
• ED Form 524--Instructions
• Standard Form 424B--Assurances, Non-Construction Programs
• ED80-0013--Certifications Regarding Lobbying; Debarment, Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters; and Drug-Free Workplace Requirements
• ED80-0014--Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension, Ineligibility and Voluntary Exclusion -- Lower Tier Covered Transactions
• Standard Form LLL--Disclosure of Lobbying Activities
• Survey on Ensuring Equal Opportunity for Applicants

• Federal Register Notice Inviting Applications (March 28, 2008); PDF (70K)

Kerrie Brown
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Room 5048
Potomac Center Plaza
Washington, DC 20202-2800

Telephone: 202-245-7281 or
E-mail: Kerrie.Brown@ed.gov

The RSA Management Information System (RSA-MIS at http://rsamis.ed.gov) contains the latest published information about grantee performance in a variety of formats which may be viewed and/or downloaded.

• Ad hoc queries on data from the RSA-631

• Downloadable data in MS Excel format from the RSA-631

The program compliance indicators establish minimum performance levels in essential project areas to measure the effectiveness of PWI projects in meeting the evaluation standards. Two of the five compliance indicators are designated as "primary" (placement rate and change in earnings) and three compliance indicators are designated as "secondary" (percent placed who have significant disabilities, percent placed who were previously unemployed, and average cost per placement). All projects must meet the minimum performance levels on the two "primary" compliance indicators and any two of the three "secondary" compliance indicators to qualify for continuation funding.

Compliance Indicator 1 (Primary): Placement rate.
The percentage of individuals served who are placed into competitive employment.

Under the PWI program, competitive employment is defined as work in the competitive labor market that is performed on a full-time or part-time basis in an integrated setting for which an individual is compensated at or above the minimum wage, but not less than the usual or customary wage and terms and benefits provided by the employer for the same or similar work performed by individuals who are not disabled.

Performance level:

• Fiscal year 2002:
  A minimum of 51 percent
  
  
• Fiscal year 2003:
  A minimum of 52 percent
  
  
• Fiscal Year 2004:
  A minimum of 54 percent
  
  
• Fiscal Year 2005 and any year after:
  A minimum of 55 percent

Compliance Indicator 2 (Primary): Change in earnings.
(Based upon hours worked, projects must have an average increase in earnings of at least $100 or $125 per week for project participants.) Projects need only demonstrate an average increase in weekly earnings of at least $100 if at least 75 percent of the individuals they placed are working fewer than 30 hours per week.

Compliance Indicator 3 (Secondary): Percent Placed who have significant disabilities.
(At least 50 percent of individuals served by the project who are placed into competitive employment are individuals who have significant disabilities.)

Compliance Indicator 4 (Secondary): Percent placed who were previously unemployed.
(At least 50 percent of individuals who are placed into competitive employment are individuals who were continuously unemployed for at least 6 months at the time of project entry.)

Compliance Indicator 5 (Secondary): Average cost per placement.
(The actual average cost per placement of individuals served by the project does not exceed 115 percent of the projected average cost per placement in the grantee's application.)

The tables below present aggregate data on the performance of PWI grantees.

* Indicates performance indicators that are also GPRA measures.
** The PWI data collection instrument was revised for FY 2005 reporting. The reporting change resulted in a significant reduction in the reporting of the number of "new" individuals served in the reporting period and inconsistencies in the grantee reported data on number served as compared to previous years. To correct for this problem, the FY 2005 "placement rate" has been calculated as the "percentage of individuals served who were placed into competitive employment" of the total number of individuals served by the projects during the reporting period. In prior fiscal years, the placement rate was calculated based on grantee reported data on the total "new" individuals served in the reporting period. This change in calculation resulted in a significantly lower placement rate as compared to previous years.

* Cost per placement will become a GPRA indicator in fiscal year 2006. Data for fiscal year 2004 is baseline data.

Instructions for Completing the Reporting Form for Projects With Industry Compliance Indicators and Annual Evaluation Plan:

MS Word (70K) | PDF (54K)

Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, Title VI, Part A, Secs. 611 and 612; 29 U.S.C. 795.

34 CFR 379