Mississippi Administrative Code
Title 9 - Education- Mississippi Community College Board
Part 3 - Programs
Chapter 13 - Workforce Projects General Rules of Good Practice
Rule 9-3-13.1 - Workforce Projects General Rules of Good Practice

A. Workforce Projects General Rules of Good Practice

These guidelines are not intended to be restrictive but to offer a set of general standards to be followed under normal circumstances when submitting and/or recommending approval of workforce projects. We must continue to maintain our goals for projects and project approval: simplicity, responsiveness, and flexibility. Our objective must remain: meeting business needs, while being cost effective, maximizing partnerships, cost sharing, and always remembering we practice the Rule of Reasonableness. If it sounds or has the perception of anything unethical or will bring question upon a college or board, DO NOT DO IT.

B. Instructor Salaries and Benefits

Instructor salaries are reimbursed at a rate not to exceed $35.00 per hour for all types of training. The rate should be determined by the Workforce Center Director with the high end ($35.00 per hour) reserved for highly technical disciplines or difficult to obtain instructors because of the time or location of instruction. This is a partnership; business should be willing to pick up any cost differential. Benefits will depend on the type contract college's use with their workforce instructors. Fringe benefits would be based on current rates applied by the college business office for that portion of the benefits not paid for by the college. These rates will be paid based on actual costs. During FY 2000, also called the SB 2796 transition year, previous commitments that were pre-approved in excess of the above limits made by industrial coordinators and approved by MDE will be honored as submitted.

C. Preparation Time

Up to 25% of the total class or instruction time may be allowed for instructor preparation time. This is to be reduced if the instructor is teaching similar classes to different groups at different times. This allowed preparation time should be monitored carefully and not used as a salary supplement.

D. Assessment Time

Pre and Post Assessment times are allowed in the project and must be identified in the appropriate sections. This time must also be kept to a minimum; for example, as many persons as allowed should be assessed simultaneously to keep monitoring time down. This is an expense that should also be shared by industry. The tests or assessment vehicles used are usually considered as part of the training materials costs and are listed as a commodity.

E. Course and Student Training Materials

Assistance for materials, including training manuals, texts, software, and any other general usage materials utilized in the training project, are allowed up to $35.00 per student/per training course. Partnering in this area is desired and should include all parties; the MCCB/college allowance, the company, and the student or trainee when appropriate. Consideration will be given to higher state cost sharing with projects requiring high cost training items such as welding rod, silver solder, etc. These items and costs must be fully explained in the project application.

F. Other Training Costs

Consideration for other training costs, determined by the workforce development center director as essential to the success of the project, will be considered by the MCCB on an individual project basis.

G. Leased Equipment

Equipment may be leased for training purposes only and must be designated as such. This equipment will not be used for production or profit. There will be no reimbursement for leasing of company owned equipment.

H. Ownership of Equipment

Ownership of equipment bought with state funds, even though private funds were also used in partnership, becomes the property of the community or junior college that performed the project with the respective customer or the state depending on the best and most efficient use. For example, if a computer lab was used for training a workforce and the state paid for five (5) computers and the industry paid for five (5) computers, all ten (10) computers would become the property of the college, or the state, after the total project was complete. This is to encourage maximum partnering by the business or industry. The industry should also receive a tax credit for the equipment when turned over to the college or the state. Equipment should be shared between programs and college's when not in use. Because computers, for example, that were paid for by workforce funds should not preclude their use by other programs such as literacy, GED or JTPA if they are not being used for workforce projects. Equipment is paid for with tax dollars and does nothing to help people when sitting dormant. Equipment purchased by the above process is to be used to benefit all Mississippians.

I. Equipment and Computer Up-Grades

We encourage upgrading equipment as needed for projects rather than purchasing new equipment. If it is more cost effective to upgrade the equipment, the cost of the upgrade should be identified and placed in the project with justification. For example, if it costs $300.00 to upgrade the hard drive of a computer that will meet the needs for a new software package, the state encourages and will pay for the upgrade rather than being faced with the cost of a new computer. You can do a significant amount of upgrading for the cost of new equipment. This holds true with other equipment and training simulators as well.

J. Mobile Labs

Mobile Labs are the property of the college for which they were purchased, or are currently located in that particular college district, or the state depending on the best and most efficient use. Mobile labs are like any other piece of equipment; they are to be used. If a college finds it has a mobile lab not being utilized, it should make that fact known and transfer the lab to a college that identifies a need for it. It is the responsibility of the colleges and MCCB to ensure that all equipment, including mobile labs are utilized in the best and most efficient manner.

K. Satellite Seminars/CCN Training

Many nationally recognized persons and organizations offer highly professional, sought after presentations via satellite. These inter-active video seminars offer the career centers a unique opportunity to present highly sought after and usually expensive presentations to the business persons in their district at no or very little cost. When the cost for such programming is an allowable cost for an approved project and it is written into a project, the state will pick up the cost of the video seminar and transmit it over the CCN. This provides everyone interested in the subject throughout the state the opportunity to participate.

L. Curriculum Development

Customized curriculum development to meet the needs of individual businesses has been a hallmark of our workforce training system. Reasonable curriculum development hours are allowed within the project. The RCU is the repository for all curricula especially those containing proprietary information.

M. Instructional Training Aids

The RCU is the primary provider of assistance in developing manuals/curricula, training videos and CD's and any training materials in general. If these materials cannot be produced because of RCU workload or inability to meet a specific requirement, the Workforce Development Center Director may seek to produce the training manuals and videos through another public entity, such as the local community and junior college or IHL labs, or ETV. If the aforementioned cannot be accomplished, the Workforce Development Center Director may consider purchase of commercial materials or solicit private bid. The bid chosen should be the lowest and best bidder. This can be accomplished with greater financial participation by the business or industry. It is the responsibility of the contracting workforce development center to follow all college and state purchasing regulations. Justification must be a part of the project and submitted under the commodities section of the application if the materials are to be purchased, developed, produced, or under a contractual agreement.

N. Training to Develop a Resource (Train-the-Trainer) and Reasonable Travel

Travel costs are allowed to meet requirements for train-the-trainer persons who will provide the community or junior college with a resource to train a business or industry with a capability not currently available in the district. Training shall be obtained at the closest location to the industry. The career center director must include the justification for the travel in the project application which will include all proposed training for the business or industry for the state fiscal year in which the train-the-trainer training is to be accomplished. The travel costs for Train-the-Trainer training will normally be included in the travel section of the application. In-state travel will be reimbursed for mileage at the current college rate but never to exceed the state rate. Out-of-state travel will be reimbursed for mileage at the state rate per mile or an airline ticket, whichever is less.

In-state and out-of-state travel will be reimbursed at the current college rate, but never to exceed the state rate of mileage, lodging and meals. All state travel rules and regulations must be followed. Reimbursements per trainee will be limited to (2) out-of-state trips maximum. All travel must be recommended and justified by the workforce development center director and approved by the MCCB prior to travel. Authorization for travel is not to be considered as part of workforce development center director $5,000.00 emergency application authorization. This travel authorization is not to be misconstrued as instructor travel costs for normal accomplishment of duties associated with project instruction. Those costs are not normally allowed and are considered as part of the contracted salary. The MCCB will consider a travel allowance for special circumstances associated with difficult classes at difficult times and areas.

O. One-on-One Training or OJT

Salaries for One-on-One, OJT, and vendor training must be carefully documented, justified and report a minimum that will not exceed $20.00 per hour. One-on-One, OJT, and vendor training are defined as five (5) participants or fewer per instructor. The maximum number of trainees eligible for one-on-one, OJT, and vender training reimbursement shall not exceed the total number employed per industry location.

P. State Licensed Programs

Achieveglobal (Zenger-Miller)/Plexus, ISO-9000, QS-9000, ISO-14000-01, Zig Ziglar, Phi Theta Kappa Leadership are training packages to which the state has purchased training rights. A company or business may receive a $1,500.00 subsidy toward the instructor's payment and a $3,000.00 subsidy toward the material to be utilized per program. However, in no case should the amount paid by the company or organization be less than a fifty percent (50%) split with the state. This is an annual subsidy based on state fiscal year and is available for each non co-located plant; for example: Company X branch in Senatobia and Company X branch in Gloster are treated as two separate and distinct companies. A company may participate in multiple programs receiving the above allowance for each program. A company should not stop at what the state has subsidized. They should be willing to make a commitment to the program and pay their fair share. This is a true partnership. Companies training greater than 100 persons in any of the above programs may request additional financial assistance. This additional funding will be based on a partnership of cost sharing. The state should never contribute more than the company or organization being served contributions.

Q. Accountability

The Legislative Accountability Report (LAR) will remain the primary reporting document. However, it will be necessary to modify the LAR to assure compliance with section (1), paragraph 4 of SB 2796. The LAR must now include a listing of all companies, businesses or organizations that received training, the number of persons taught in the classes, the location and cost of the class to the state. This should also be broken down to include cost per student trained per class and cost per contract, instruction, and hour for the class. All of the above will have to be tracked by each workforce development center and submitted annually to the State Board for Community and Junior College, as required by SB 2796.