Selected provisions in original House bill

• Authorizes use of existing funding within NSF’s Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate for grants to community colleges to develop or improve associate degree and certificate programs in high-demand STEM fields.
• Authorizes use of existing EHR funding for grants to support universities that partner with employers that offer work-based learning opportunities to students pursuing four-year STEM degrees.
• Authorizes use of existing EHR funding for grants to support higher education institutions and non-profits to conduct research on the use and best practices of computer-based learning for technical skills training.
• Directs NSF to explore the feasibility of expanding its surveys to collect data on the skilled technical workforce, which is defined as “workers with high school diplomas and two-year technical training or certifications who employ significant levels of STEM knowledge in their jobs.”
• Directs the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate to support research on the skilled technical labor markets.
• Directs SBE to conduct analyses comparing skilled technical workforce development in the U.S. with that of other developed countries.