(a) General technical assistance

(1) In general

The Secretary shall ensure that the Department has sufficient capacity to, and does, provide, coordinate, and support the development of, appropriate training, technical assistance, staff development, and other activities, including—

(A) assistance in replicating programs of demonstrated effectiveness, to States and localities;

(B) the training of staff providing rapid response services;

(C) the training of other staff of recipients of funds under this subchapter, including the staff of local boards and State boards;

(D) the training of members of State boards and local boards;

(E) assistance in the development and implementation of integrated, technology-enabled intake and case management information systems for programs carried out under this Act and programs carried out by one-stop partners, such as standard sets of technical requirements for the systems, offering interfaces that States could use in conjunction with their current (as of the first date of implementation of the systems) intake and case management information systems that would facilitate shared registration across programs;

(F) assistance regarding accounting and program operations to States and localities (when such assistance would not supplant assistance provided by the State);

(G) peer review activities under this subchapter; and

(H) in particular, assistance to States in making transitions to implement the provisions of this Act.

(2) Form of assistance

(A) In general

In order to carry out paragraph (1) on behalf of a State or recipient of financial assistance under section 3221 or 3222 of this title, the Secretary, after consultation with the State or grant recipient, may award grants or enter into contracts or cooperative agreements.

(B) Limitation

Grants or contracts awarded under paragraph (1) to entities other than States or local units of government that are for amounts in excess of $100,000 shall only be awarded on a competitive basis.

(b) Dislocated worker technical assistance

(1) Authority

Of the amounts available pursuant to section 3172(a)(2)(A) of this title, the Secretary shall reserve not more than 5 percent of such amounts to provide technical assistance to States that do not meet the State performance accountability measures for the primary indicators of performance described in section 3141(b)(2)(A)(i) of this title with respect to employment and training activities for dislocated workers. Using such reserved funds, the Secretary may provide such assistance to other States, local areas, and other entities involved in providing assistance to dislocated workers, to promote the continuous improvement of assistance provided to dislocated workers, under this subchapter.

(2) Training

Amounts reserved under this subsection may be used to provide for the training of staff, including specialists, who provide rapid response services. Such training shall include instruction in proven methods of promoting, establishing, and assisting labor-management committees. Such projects shall be administered through the Employment and Training Administration of the Department.

(c) Promising and proven practices coordination

The Secretary shall—

(1) establish a system through which States may share information regarding promising and proven practices with regard to the operation of workforce investment activities under this Act;

(2) evaluate and disseminate information regarding such promising and proven practices and identify knowledge gaps; and

(3) commission research under section 3224(b) of this title to address knowledge gaps identified under paragraph (2).