(a)

(1) The Department of Higher Education shall act as the disbursing entity for all funds for the Workforce Initiative Act of 2015.

(2) The Department of Higher Education shall establish procedures for the request for proposals under subdivision (b)(2) of this section that shall:

(A) Be approved by the Governor;

(B) Include input from the Department of Education, the Department of Workforce Services, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, and the Department of Career Education; and

(C) Be reported to the Legislative Council.

(3) The Department of Higher Education shall establish a grant application review and award process under this section that shall:

(A) Be approved by the Governor; and

(B) Include recommendations from the Department of Education, the Department of Workforce Services, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, and the Department of Career Education.

(b)

(1) The Department of Higher Education shall set funding priorities in three (3) phases.

(2) (A) (i) Phase one shall seek requests for proposals from alliances consisting of technical institutes, community colleges, universities, the kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) education system, educational cooperatives, or employers, with input from local workforce investment boards, to receive planning grants of up to one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000).

(ii)

(a) The local workforce investment boards shall identify the industry sectors for each of their ten (10) areas.

(b) The identification process shall include a comprehensive data analysis of employer skill requirements in each sector in each region.

(c) The identified industry sectors and employment skills shall serve as the basis for an application to a request for proposal from the Department of Higher Education.

(B) A request for proposal shall include an education and employer alignment plan that includes state-approved, employer-driven career pathways that are supported by a secondary center that awards concurrent credit courses that can be applied to a certificate of proficiency, technical certificate, Associate of Applied Science degree, or Bachelor of Applied Science degree or a similarly designed bachelor's degree.

(C) Recognizing the limited state resources, the priority for planning grants shall be given to the applicants that best enhance regional efforts, including collaboration between community colleges, universities, public schools, education service cooperatives, the local workforce investment boards, career and technical education programs, multidistrict vocational centers, and private partnerships with clearly defined and measurable performance and effectiveness objectives.

(3)

(A) Phase two shall provide implementation grants in an amount necessary to provide the resources to implement approved projects concluded and approved by the Department of Higher Education from phase one.

(B) Implementation grants shall include clearly defined outcome measures and last for up to two (2) years.

(4)

(A) Phase three shall provide continuation grants for phase two recipients that meet or exceed the outcome measures.

(B) Continuation grants shall be used to align the performance and relevance of programs to ever changing workforce training needs.