1) Central Purpose of the Education and Training Programs This document presents a comprehensive description of Administration on Aging (AOA) plans and initiatives under the education and training program authorized by Title IV, Part A Training and Title IV, Part E Multidisciplinary Center of Gerontology of the Older Americans Act. Any and all education and training program efforts of AoA derive their legitimacy and underlying purpose from the Act, which focuses its mandate on: the development and implementation of comprehensive and From this perspective, AoA supported education and training programs contribute to the preparation of personnel at the Federal, State, and local levels capable of engaging in skilled, knowledge-based, and purposive efforts for improving the lives of older persons. The need for such programs is largely the product of society's growing recognition of the importance of addressing the needs and improving the quality of life and opportunities of a rapidly growing older population. Older persons face a variety of serious problems. These include maintaining income during the retirement years, preserving health and the capacity for social participation, making suitable housing and living arrangements, finding new activities and roles which afford meaning and satisfaction, and establishing new social relationships to replace those broken by the departure of children from the home, retirement, and death of friends and relatives. The quality of the societal response to these problems in large measure depends upon the knowledge, skill, and dedication of people working to serve the elderly. Well designed, systematic training can ensure a level of performance that attains standards of excellence. AOA's education and training programs are intended to result proximately in that high level of performance and ultimately in the improved wellbeing of the elderly. Thus, the test of these education and training programs is not just their impact on the performance of personnel in agencies and programs supported under the Older Americans Act - important as that impact is - but their impact as well on the performance of the large number of other personnel whose work also directly and/or substantially affects older people. The scope of AoA's responsibilities in these matters is reflected in the detailed mandate given the Commissioner on Aging by the 1978 Amendments to the Older Americans Act to develop a national manpower policy for the field of aging. Some steps to carry out that mandate are underway, while others are in the planning stages. Because of the inherent importance and complexity of the task, a systematic process of background studies, analyses, draft formulations, and extensive consultations will be required in the development of the national manpower policy. It is anticipated that the process will be completed in FY 1981, in time for the manpower policy to be the basis of AoA's education and training program plans for the period beginning FY 1982. Thus, the Education and Training Program Plan described in Part I of this document constitutes an organizing framework for those strategies and specific program initiatives that AoA intends to pursue for the years FY 1979 through FY 1981. 2) Outline of the Education and Training Program Plan and Guidelines for Applications Part I of this document contains besides the INTRODUCTION a companion The historical context of education and training efforts The basis for developing new education and training initiatives o A description of specific education and training activities Part II of this document contains GUIDELINES FOR PREPARING APPLICATIONS covering new grant and cooperative agreement competitions for each of six (6) program initiatives to be held in FY 1979 and early FY 1980. The five programs slated for grant competition in FY 1979 and early FY 1980 are: 1) Title IV-A Gerontology Career Preparation Program 2) Title IV-A Minority Research Associate Program 3) Title IV-E Long-Term Care Gerontology Centers Program 4) Title IV-A Geriatric Fellowship Program 5) Title IV-A National Continuing Education Program The sixth set of guidelines for establishment of Aging Policy Study Centers under the Title IV-E Multidisciplinary Centers of Gerontology Program, introduces the first use of cooperative agreements by the Administration on Aging. This competition will solicit applications in late FY 1979 for award of support in early FY 1980. Those program activities which are to be funded through grant continuations, or through contract (e.g. State Education and Training Program, National Training and Technical Assistance Projects) are briefly described in Part I as part of the Overview of the AoA Education and Training Plan for FY 1979 - 1981. Six (6) program initiatives fall under this heading. They are: 1) Regional Education and Training Program 2) National Training and Technical Assistance Program 3) Minority Recruitment Program 4) National Conferences Program 5) State Education and Training Program The first three (3) programs will be implemented by contract awards, annoucement of which will appear in the Commerce Business Daily. The National Conferences Program will be supported through contract solicitations or applicant-initiated grant projects. The State Education and Training Program is supported through continuing grants to State Agencies on Aging. Guidelines for preparing State Education and Training Program applications have been sent by AoA to the State Agencies on Aging and are available from the State Agencies. The National Manpower Policy Project is expected to be funded through a competitive procurement. Part III of this document contains GENERAL APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS for preparing and submitting grant and cooperative agreement applications, as opposed to the special instructions set forth by each program is guidelines in Part II. A series of Appendices complete the document. They include application forms, instructions, and other materials related to AOA's Education and Training Program Plan and Guidelines. B) OVERVIEW OF THE AOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING PLAN, FY 1979 - 1981 While 1979 marks significant changes in the direction and structure of AoA's education and training program, there is much of value in the program's experience dating back to the passage in 1965 of the Older Americans Act that is retained in current AoA plans and program guidelines for education and training. Beginning with a brief history of AOA's education and training program, this section discusses how education and training efforts need to be adapted to keep pace with changes in AoA's policy and program priorities and with developments in the field of aging. The section then moves from explaining the basis of AoA's Education and Training Plan for FY 1979 - 1981 to a description of each of the program initiatives planned for this period. 1) Historical Context Since the enactment of the Older Americans Act, the Administration on Aging has used most of its training and education program resources for those general development and catalytic efforts that are appropriate to an emergent field like aging/gerontology. The Title IV-A Training program and more recently the Title IV-E Multidisciplinary Centers of Gerontology program, have been geared toward "planning", "developmental", "career training", "in-service", and similar type grants consistent with this basic, capacity-building approach. Program guidelines have been broad and adaptable. They have accommodated a diversity of actions and interests. Grantees under these programs, whether institutions of higher education, State Agencies on Aging, or other organizations in the field of aging, have had considerable discretion in initiating and carrying out projects to train and educate people for service in the field of aging. The training program authority, and the lion's share of funding, has focused on "training persons who are employed or preparing for employment in the field of aging" (01der Americans Act, as amended, Title IV, Part A, Section 404)* To supply that specialized training, the Administration on Aging has relied principally upon institutions of higher education. AoA Title IV-A Training Program support has helped to build programs for gerontological training, education, and research in scores of universities and colleges, who have in turn recruited and trained thousands of persons for careers in aging, while retraining still others already working with or in behalf of older people. The early history of the AoA training program was characterized by 1) scant funding; 2) a conviction that the program needed to focus on recruiting and preparing for careers in aging (for which there was an expected heavy demand), and pay less attention to training persons then employed in aging (of whom there were relatively few); 3) the resultant effort (for several years an uphill struggle) to develop and sustain gerontology programs in the logical setting for career preparation and education, namely academic institutions. During the mid-1970's several changes in the pattern of AoA's education and career training programs have taken place. Three major changes are highlighted here: 1) the start-up of the Title IV-E Multidisciplinary Centers of Gerontology Program; 2) the marked expansion of Title IV-A program activities and funding levels; 3) the increased interest of AoA in ensuring that higher education gerontology programs develop a strong minority aging component. o Multidisciplinary Centers of Gerontology The Title IV-E (formerly IV-C) Multidisciplinary Centers of Much like the Title IV-A Career Training, the IV-E program has *Until 1973 the Training Programs provision were set forth under Title V of the Older Americans Act. Since then Title IV - Part A has provided authorization for the Training Program. |