1. Can you provide further information about the "payments of stipends and incentives" referenced in the RFP? 

Actually, stipends will be the only type of payments made, as incentives must be non-cash rewards. Stipends could be various amounts to participants that are in a program and participate in activities outlined in the program. For this Work-Based Learning Program, we will offer $150 to each participant that completes 30 hours of work-readiness training prior to starting their employment.

 

2. Do you anticipate payments of stipends and/or incentives to people who are not also hourly wage-earners under the program or will such additional payments be limited to those enrolled under the WIOA and NEG-COVID-19 programs?

They will be limited to those participants in the Work-Based Learning program, NEG-COVID-19 doesn’t offer these payments.

 

3. Will any of the stipends be based on hours of training completed or will they be flat-rate, one-time payments for each benchmark achieved?

Stipends will be Flat Rate payments for achieved benchmarks.

 

4. Will incentives be cash payments only or do you anticipate other types of incentives that the successful vendor will need to track and process?

 Incentives must be non-cash awards so the vendor will not be issuing those payments.

 

5.  Can you provide the job classifications so we can properly identify workers' comp. costs? (ex. Administrative, Light Industrial, Medical, Skilled Trades etc.) Would it be acceptable to include separate pricing to cover the increased risk for skilled trades positions?

The classifications have not been determined at this time and we are going to try and keep in the mid-range type positions. I would anticipate – Receptionist, Maintenance, Groundskeeper, Janitorial, Administrative Assistant, Production, etc. Yes, it will be acceptable to include separate pricing.

 

6. Under "Scope of Proposal," the 6th and 8th bullet points require the vendor to track participants (Bullet 6) and track stipends and incentives (Bullet 8) to ensure maximums are not exceeded. Can you clarify if the service provider will track hours and stipends/incentives and notify the payroll vendor or if you anticipate the payroll vendor providing this service? If the latter, do you anticipate that the vendor would deny payments that exceed maximums after the fact or some other solution?  

SWAPTE staff will be tracking the maximum hours and stipends before approving for payments. We ask that the vendor have a system that will report the amounts that have been actually paid.

 

7. If positions require personal protective equipment, will PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) be required for any of these positions? If so, who will be responsible for providing the PPE?  (Ex. Will worksite employers provide PPE is required?)

If this is required, SWAPTE will make sure that PPE is provided by the employer.