Health and Human Services (HHS) is the largest grant-making agency in the US. Most HHS grants are provided directly to government, educational, and community organizations, for distribution to individuals and organizations who are eligible to receive funding. There are approximately 3,000 HHS employees responsible for this important work that exceeds $600 billion in federal financial assistance awards annually. This critical grants management workforce lacked training standards, certification requirements, and performance measurement metrics. To prepare prospective applicants and better educate professionals in the grants management pipeline, HHS via their Division of Workforce Development (DWD) organization, teamed with HighPoint to develop training courses that use creative materials and methods to engage their target audience.

Our team of experienced professionals established a Grants Training Academy with three distinct certificate level tracks: HHS Grants Professional Certificate, OPDIV/STAFFDIV Specialist Certificate, and Grant Applicant Certificate. The curriculum includes both instructor led and self-paced instruction that is tailored to each certificate level. The Academy’s virtual environment is infused with gamification that allows the learners to receive immediate feedback from designed interactions and questions. The courses together with the newly created HHS Community of Practice web page are customized tools that work to promote continuous learning and reinforce the grants management process.