1. Your FREE and OPEN Digital Library of Workforce Training Materials
SkillsCommons.org
Your FREE and OPEN Digital Library of Workforce Training Materials
U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

2. Presenter Evan Burke, SkillsCommons Project Lead
TAACCCT Grant Program, Division of Strategic Investments, Employment & Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor
Evan is a program analyst at the Department of Labor’s Employment & Training Administration. He serves as the project lead for SkillsCommons.org for the TAACCCT Grant Program.
Before coming to the Department of Labor in 2015, Evan worked internationally on education, conflict transformation, and microfinance projects, including serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines where he developed culture-localized, indigenous language peer-learning programs, and working as a project evaluator for micro-finance projects with tribal women’s labor unions in Gujarat, India.

3. Developed Through: Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant (TAACCCT)

4. Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant (TAACCCT)

5. Open Educational Resources (OER) at SkillsCommons.org
TAACCCT has created the world’s largest collection of OER for job-driven workforce development.
900,000+
12,000+
materials downloaded to date
materials available for download, and this continues to grow steadily every month
Data as of April, 2018

6. SkillsCommons: An online library of 12,000+ free workforce development resources ready to be downloaded, adapted, and used

7. Top 10 Types of Materials on SkillsCommons
Course Collections
1,940
906
Syllabi
1,275
Outreach Materials
899
Online Course Materials
1,198
Hybrid/Blended Courses
881
Student Support Materials
1,017
Material Type  Results Syllabus 1940 Recruitment and Outreach 1275 Hybrid/Blended Course 1198 Presentation 1017 Program Planning Resources 907 Course Collection 906 Online Course 899 Student Support Materials 881 Grant Management Materials 819 Assignment 796 Instructor and/or Advisor/Case Manager Support Materials 735 Reference Material 722 Program 613 Tutorial 611 Quiz/Test 518 Online Course Module 510 Quality Assurance Report 488 Workshop and Training Material 420 Assessment Tool 398 Animation 366 Drill and Practice 323 Program Assessment and Evaluation 320 Video 261 Simulation 252 Articulation Processes and Agreement 213 Development Tool 198 Job Training/Fieldwork Experiences 196 Illustration/Graphic 161 Partnership Resources 133 Photographic Image 118 Case Study 62 Final Program Report 52 Open Textbook 26 Learning Object Repository 5 Other 1
819
Grant Management Materials
Presentations
907
796
Course Assignments
Program Planning Materials
Data as of October, 2017

8. SkillsCommons Resources are Industry-Aligned

9. SkillsCommons Resources are Free & Open to Use and Adapt
Content is openly licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
You are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
Under the condition that you give attribution: appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.

10. A Treasure for the Workforce Investment System
“Wow. Just wow.  What a treasure of resources!” 
- Coordinator of Professional Development, State Department of Education
“Really love this resource! I have been working with adult education and workforce development partners in developing career pathways systems/programs. Tremendous resource to assist them.”
-Senior Director for Adult Education, CTE and Workforce Development
 “I needed to have access to a free educational resource that can be revised for use in our American Job Center.  The fact that SkillsCommons offers technical support is also great.”
-WIOA Manager at American Job Center

11. Tribal Colleges that Participated in TAACCCT
Blackfeet Community College
Cankdeska Cikana Community College
Project: Montana HealthCARE Consortium
Chief Dull Knife College
Sitting Bull College
Aaniiih Nakoda College
Project: Tribal College Consortium for Developing North Dakota Workforce (TCC DeMaND Workforce)
Turtle Mountain Community College
Fort Peck Community College
United Tribes Technical College
Project: Strengthening Workforce Alignment in Montana’s Manufacturing and Energy Industries
Oglala Lakota College
Little Big Horn College
Project: South Dakota Allied Health Training Consortium
Sinte Gleska University
Salish Kootenai College
Stone Child College
Fort Berthold Community College
Project: Training for Regional Energy in North Dakota (TREND)

12. TAACCCT Grantee Finder
Contact information and descriptions of TAACCCT colleges’ programs of study are available on the TAACCCT Grantee Finder

13. Grantee Highlight: Montana HealthCARE Project
Created statewide nursing pathways using stacked and latticed credentials and contextualized curricula
Address Montana's nursing shortages by providing accelerated pathways to credential completion
Increase success for students by providing services that better prepare adult learners for college; accelerate credential completion; coach students in pathway navigation; and provide access to distance education
Engage the healthcare industry, education, workforce programs, and other stakeholders in healthcare workforce transformation; on-the-job and apprenticeship opportunities

14. Grantee Highlight: Montana HealthCARE Project
Developed in the context of apprenticeship programs:
Learning Resource Collection
Soft Skills Leadership Training
LEAD: Learn, Engage, Adapt, Do. Fostering Self-Awareness for Workplace Success
Student Support at Salish Kootenai College
Fostering Success Among Native American and Non-Traditional Students Report

15. How does SkillsCommons work?

16. Search for materials by keyword

17. Search by:
Grant projects
Types of materials
Credentials
Institutions
Industries
Occupations

23. Program Design Resources:
Implementation Reports
Outreach Materials
Career Pathways

24. Instructional Materials:
Courses
Syllabi
Learning materials

25. Apprenticeship Resources Showcase

27. Search for free:
Online Textbooks
Course Materials
Online Courses
Journal & Articles
Colleagues in Your Discipline

28. Affordable Learning Solutions Showcase

29. Open Courseware Showcases http://support. skillscommons

30. Open Courseware Showcases http://support. skillscommons

32. Open CourseWare Showcase

33. Reuse Example in Wisconsin: Basic IT Skills Course (BITS)
Developed through TAACCCT INTERFACE Project
Modularized, easily customized, self-paced, full course:
Assessments, badges of completion, lesson transcripts, digital learning objects
Thumb drive availability for those with no internet connectivity
Reused in over 100 locations across WI, including:
AJCs/WDBs, libraries, veterans centers, correctional facilities, literacy centers
Online: or

34. Example: Digital Literacy Online Course

35. BITS: Examples of Re-Use
Wisconsin
Digital literacy grant: Offered free internet service for members of 3 underserved neighborhoods in Madison, WI
Many residents—now with connectivity—had limited digital literacy skills and were
Residents were offered digital literacy training using BITS
Ohio
Northwest State Community College/iSTAR project: WSOS Career Coaches
Local AJC: Ohio Means Jobs - Williams County
Local manufacturing firm
WSOS is the local Community Action Agency. Sarah Stubblefield, iSTAR Project Manager (Round 4 OhioTechNET) at Northwest State CC, provided BITS course to WSOS career coaches to share with students who are struggling with online component of coursework.
Sarah also shared BITS with:
- OhioMeansJobs, the local AJC, which told her they lack the staff to run through the course with their service population, but are very “happy to have this tool in their toolbox.”
- A TACT employer partner who needed to improve computer skills of incumbent workers; company was “struggling to bring their operators up to speed.”

36. BITS: Testimonials Heather Nilsen, Employment and Training Specialist
“When we launched the course in January 2016, we invited our workforce development partners to join us…and within weeks of that launch we were flooded with requests from them to think about using and adding additional features.”
Kathy Spada, Project Manager
INTERFACE Consortium
Northcentral Technical College
“After previewing the INTERFACE Basic Skills Computer Course, I found the lessons and course material to be right on the mark and at a pace that would not overwhelm a new or inexperienced computer user….This program helps solve a significant, long-term workforce training need by helping job seekers increase their computer skills.”
Heather Nilsen, Employment and Training Specialist
Department of Workforce Development
Bureau of Job Service - Milwaukee

37. Reuse Example in New Mexico: SUN PATH’s Job Development Career Coaching
New Mexico SUN PATH Program collaborated with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions to offer job development career coaching to participants including:
One-on-one career blueprint: development of where participants want to go and how to get there.
Assistance in creating an effective resume, cover letter, and thank you letter or .
Overview and guidance while utilizing the New Mexico Workforce Connection online system, including posting resumes for employers to see.
Customer Service Training, participants receive a certificate upon completion
Resources developed through the program are available on SkillsCommons.org:
Career-Readiness-Workshop
Collaboration-and-Partnership
Effective-Employer-Outreach
Interview-Skills-and-Resume-Development
Workforce-Connection-Online-System

38. Program Design Resources for Employer Engagement
Employer Engagement Forms, Tracking Sheet, Outreach Protocol and Surveys
Submitted by Norwalk Community College
NORWALK COMMUNITY COLLEGE: PPM-2: HL-SCI Consortium Employer Engagement Materials
Employer Engagement Strategies-TRAC-7
Submitted by Washburn Institute of Technology
NRC Promising Practices Manual
Submitted by Passaic County Community College
MIDDLESEX COMMUNITY COLLEGE: PPM-14: Outreach Materials
Submitted by Middlesex Community College - CT

39. Other Online Employment & Training Tools
CareerOneStop: Wide variety of online tools for finding jobs, training, and career exploration
Competency Model Clearinghouse: Library of skill competency models for key industry sectors
O*NET: Online tools for career exploration and job analysis for use by job seekers, workforce development and HR professionals, students, and researchers.
Workforce System Strategies: Online library of research, best practices, and guides for developing the workforce
Eligible Training Provider List: List of WIOA eligible training providers by state

40. Innovations Leading to Career Success Webinar Series
Thank you!
Please also join us for our webinar series in collaboration with the US Department of Education:
Innovations Leading to Career Success Webinar Series
February 28 - Make Industry Experts into Expert Instructors to Increase Student Success
March 14 - Scaling Career Pathways in Wisconsin
March 28 - Resources for Developmental Education Using Competency-Based Education
April 11 - Lowering the Cost of Course Materials with Free and Open Educational Resources
May 2 - Sustaining Grant-funded Projects for Long-term Success
May 16 – Free Resources for Apprenticeship and Work-based Learning

41. Questions?
Evan Burke SkillsCommons Project Lead TAACCCT Grant Program For more information see: Utilizing Free Online Educational Resources on the SkillsCommons.org Repository Webinars: Part I: Introduction Part II: Makeover Visit website at Contact