Deadline for submitting Questions for the RFP has been extended to 4:00PM Friday December 4, 2015

• QUESTION: Will there a cutoff date for changes to the RFP?
  • ANSWER: At this point, we do not envision that there will be changes to the RFP after the question cutoff date, which is December 4, 2015.  However, the Department of Labor continues to issue new guidance on WIOA, which may further inform the RFP or your responses.  As new guidance is issued, it will be shared via the Lake County Purchasing Department’s Portal.  All participants are encouraged to register through the Portal to receive updates and any answers to questions.  While we do not anticipate any major changes, if there is guidance from either the Federal or State government which requires substantial changes from the RFP, there is a chance that the due date for the responses could be pushed back, or this RFP could be cancelled and a new RFP issued.  In either case, proposers who are registered on the Portal would receive notification. 
•  QUESTION: Will the undefined terms in WIOA be defined by July 1, 2016?
  • ANSWERS: The federal regulations for WIOA were due in January 2016, but the US Department of Labor has now said that they will be issued in “spring 2016”, which means April – June, 2016.  Simultaneously, the state is working on their policies.  After the federal and state policies are established, local policy will be adopted.  We hope to have all guidance in place as soon as possible, but are tasked to apply our best judgements and carry on with programs and services through the transition. We may not have final guidance on everything before July 1, 2016, and  suggest designing  programs around things that are  defined in WIOA.  Historically, the local workforce board has not narrowed definitions or requirements beyond the requirements established by the federal and state government, although they have the authority to do so.
• QUESTION: So in the budget we would break costs down to each activity of delivering a work experience?
  • ANSWER: No.  We don’t need to know how much time or cost is allocated for each task involved in the work experience.  We do need to be able to identify from your staffing plan and your budget: what are the responsibilities of your staff and the amount of time being allocated to allowable work experience activities.  That information should translate to your budget so that we can see that a particular staff person’s salary and a proportional share of that person’s benefit costs are allocated across  work experience or non-work experience, as appropriate.  The cost allocation plan,  staffing plan and budget should clearly reflect the allocations and methodologies  and should be traceable  to the  general ledger.
• QUESTION: If someone works part of their time on work experience and part on non-work experience, do they need to get separate pay checks and pay stubs?
  • ANSWER: No. the cost allocation plan and the staffing plan should accurately reflect the allocations and methodologies used to track an individual’s time between work experience and non-work experience activities and across different grants/programs if applicable.
• QUESTION: 35% of the budget needs to be spent on work experience.  Does that mean that 35% of the participant’s time needs to be spent on work experience?
  • ANSWER: No.  It could be 100% of the time spent on work experience.  The 35% requirement is related to budget, not participant time.
• QUESTION: Is there a minimum number of hours that participants need to spend in work experience?
  • No.  There is no minimum or maximum number of work experience hours.
• QUESTION: Are the wage guidelines in the RFP only for the work experience portion of the program?
  • ANSWER: Yes. If participants  are being paid a wage as part of the work-experience program element, the wage must  be at least the state minimum wage.  They don’t need to be paid a wage for classroom time; and wages paid for classroom time does not count towards the 35%.  Work experience in WIOA has a broad definition, which includes non-paid work experience, job shadowing, etc.  If work experiences are not paid, that will mean that you would have less costs going toward the requirement that 35% of the budget be spent on work experience.
• QUESTION: Do stipends for classroom time need to follow wage rules?
  • ANSWER: No.  Stipends are considered supportive services.  Stipends must  be tied to program milestones (i.e. attendance, attainment of a certificate or credential, etc.).  Stipends do not count toward the requirement that 35% of the budget be spent on work experience.  Wages paid for classroom time do not count toward the 35% work experience budget requirement. Wages paid for work experience do count toward that 35% work experience budget requirement.
• QUESTION: Under the work experience expenditure requirement in the TEGL 8-15, classroom training or the required academic component directly related to the work experience counts as work experience.  So, classroom training at CLC doesn’t count, but training at the workplace does count toward the requirement that 35% of the budget be spent on work experience, right?
  • ANSWER: Training and Employment Guidance Letter WIOA No. 8-15 was issued by the US Department of Labor on November 17, 2015; after the release of the RFP. At this date there is not an addendum to the RFP and in preparing a response to the RFP only that noted in the RFP are allowable activities and expenditures towards the required 35% work experience expenditures.
• QUESTION: In the grant proposal, should the work experience work site representative write that they support it, or should we just identify them?
  • ANSWER: The more detail that can be provided, the better.  Identifying work sites, locations, supervisors, job duties of the work experience placement.  Review the Project Description Section 6, Number 3 on page 19 and make sure you are answering all of the questions listed there as completely as possible.
• QUESTION: Are there any other objectives (i.e. technology innovation) besides the WIOA performance measures?
  • ANSWER: The outcomes that we are looking for beyond the WIOA performance measures are the program elements and required program components, which are outlined in the RFP.
• QUESTION: Is there a cap on costs per youth?
  • ANSWER: The RFP does not set a maximum costs per youth, but that is a metric calculated to assess the overall financial plan and budget.  The RFP does not identify a  minimum or maximum cost per youth  because the program content and target youth served vary widely across programs.  We seek to make efficient investments in our youth that maximize the benefit, but there is no minimum or maximum.  The evaluation criteria are listed on page 18.
• QUESTION: Are there preferred industry tracks within the RFP/WIOA?
  • ANSWER: No, there are no preferred sectors identified in the RFP.
• QUESTION: Do we have to show employment demand for our proposal?
  • ANSWER: Yes.  Ideally that demand is shown through employer participation in the program.