Collaboration Agreement Between The U.S. Department of Labor And Monster.com

Collaboration Agreement Between The U.S. Department of Labor And Monster.com

Background

As part of the U.S. Department of Labor, the mission of the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is to contribute to the more efficient and effective functioning of the U.S. labor market by providing high quality job training, employment, labor market information, and income maintenance services. This is done primarily through State and local workforce development systems. ETA funds, through the States, a suite of Internet-based national electronic tools known collectively as America's Career Kit. The States, through the National Electronic Tools Board (Board) created by a Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, advise ETA in the development of policy regarding the operation of these national electronic tools. This Board, at its meeting of June 8, 2001, reviewed and recommended its approval of the collaboration described in this agreement.

Monster.com (Monster) is a global online network for careers, connecting companies with individual job seekers.

The following Collaboration Agreement (Agreement) sets forth the areas where the U.S. Department of Labor and Monster intend to collaborate.

Purpose

The purpose of this Agreement is to establish a collaborative relationship between the parties and set forth the intentions of the parties under this Agreement. We expect that this Agreement will result in a more efficient labor market and the broadest possible access to jobs, training and education, and career development information for U.S. workers.

Parties to the Agreement

The parties to this Agreement are the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and TMP Interactive Inc. d/b/a Monster.com.

Duration of the Agreement

This Agreement commences on the 30 day of October, 2001, and remains in effect until canceled

by either party.

Amendment or Cancellation of the Agreement

The parties may amend this Agreement at any time in writing and by mutual consent of the parties. The Agreement may be canceled by either party upon sixty (60) days written notice.

This relationship is not exclusive and each party may collaborate with others around any of the

initiatives listed in this document.

None of the parties to this agreement are obligated to share proprietary information or intellectual

property with others without the express written consent of the owner of that proprietary information or intellectual property.

Intentions of the Parties Under the Agreement

In recognition of the mutual aims and interests of the parties to this Agreement and the benefits to be derived from effective implementation of the collaboration described in this Agreement, the parties agree to the following:

1. Monster intends to adopt, use, and promote (as a standard) the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) taxonomy, the government's occupational classification system. Monster plans to deploy the SOC internationally in its web-based products. DOL recognizes that Monster may be called on to adopt internal extensions to its official public coding schemes. Monster agrees to notify DOL when it extends or expands the SOC for its internal use in response to changes in the labor market. To the extent possible, Monster plans to work with DOL to use the O*NET structure to code and add occupations that may not be shown in adequate detail in the SOC for job search purposes. O*NET provides a mechanism to allow additions to be made within the SOC framework without changing the actual SOC code. Where appropriate, Monster may recommend formal changes be made in the SOC.

2 Monster intends to use O*NET as the basis for Career Planning activities on its web site; version 4.0 of the O*NET database, including all documentation, will be available to Monster as soon as it is publicly available without charge.

3 Monster will collaborate with DOL regarding the continued development of the Career Management Account concept that uses the Public Key, Private Key Infrastructure of the Internet to store and display validated credential and assessment information.

4 Monster and America's Job Bank (AJB) intend to share transaction data stemming from use of their web-based products which will provide real time labor market information. AJB is operated by the State of New York under a grant with DOL. This data sharing will be accomplished in such a manner as to comply with all applicable laws, operate within the existing privacy policies of Monster and America's Job Bank, ensure the integrity of each entity's source data, to protect the privacy of individuals and companies, and to permit development and, where permissible, marketing by either party of information products stemming from the data. Where appropriate, Monster and AJB may jointly release information products.

5 Monsterlearning may, in its discretion, offer to its learning providers the option to simultaneously register for America's Learning Exchange (ALX). ALX also will offer its learning providers the option to simultaneously register with Monsterlearning, as well as other learning exchanges. DOL and Monsterlearning will explore sharing transaction data to produce trend and other industry data relating to the learning industry.

6 Monster and DOL intend to adopt, use, and, to the extent practicable, promote with their employer customers the HR XML standard for describing jobs and exchange of job order information, although either party is free to extend this standard.

7 Monster will explore the adoption, use and promotion of the specifications in the new Scalable Content Object Reference Model, developed jointly by DOL and DOD, with regard to their Learning Management System.

8 Monster, along with other members of the public, will be provided an opportunity to review and comment on (a) the set of sample work activity ("skill") statements now being incorporated into O*NET under the Generalized Work Activities and (b) the course taxonomy now under development by DOL for use in ALX. If Monster determines these taxonomies either meet or can be modified to meet its needs, then Monster may offer its views to DOL on developing tools and standards for mapping the course taxonomy to O*NET attributes, including those related to skills, knowledge, and generalized work activities.

9 Monster is developing a job distribution tool called "Viper". Once deployed, Monster intends that AJB will be one of the destination sites available to its employer customers for the distribution of their jobs.

10 Monster is developing a newsletter that will be distributed to employers. Monster may provide a forum for knowledgeable parties including the Secretary of Labor or other DOL officials, in which they can address issues relevant to the 21st Century Workforce.

Private Right of Action

This agreement does not confer any private right of action.

Costs

Each party in this Agreement assumes full responsibility for its respective costs associated with its performance of the terms of this Agreement.

________________________________________________________________

Ms. Emily Stover DeRocco Date Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training

________________________________________________________________

Mr. Jeff Taylor Date Chief Executive Officer, TMP Interactive Inc. d/b/a Monster.com

Facts About the Collaboration Between the U.S. Department of Labor and Monster.com

Collaborations with Private Sector Key to Labor Department Fulfilling its Mission

As part of the U.S. Department of Labor, the Employment and Training Administration's (ETA) mission is to contribute to the more efficient and effective functioning of the U.S. labor market by providing high quality job training, employment, labor market information, and income maintenance services through partnerships with State and local workforce development systems.

Through partnerships with States, ETA has developed a set of electronic tools called America's Career Kit. These tools are designed to help U.S. workers access jobs, training and education and career development information. The America's Career Kit is composed of:

America's Job Bank (AJB)

America's Career InfoNet (ACINet)

America's Learning eXchange (ALX)

America's Service Locator (ASL)

The National Electronic Tools Board, composed of Federal, State, and private-nonprofit members is the governing body for America's Career Kit. This group approved and recommended a collaborative relationship with Monster.com that will:

Extend the reach of the ACK products.
Increase usage.
Foster usage of a common language to classify jobs, training and education information.

Draw on the strengths of both Monster.com and America's Career Kit to provide U.S. workers with useful data stemming from the use of both organizations' websites.

Comparative Strengths of the Collaborators

America's Job Bank is the world's largest electronic job site with over 1.4 million jobs, 400,000 resumes and 200,000 employers.
America's Career InfoNet is a unique site with a wealth of career development information.
America's Learning eXchange is the world's largest electronic listing of information about education and training opportunities with over 6,000 providers and 300,000 offerings.
America's Service Locator links users to counselors and other helping professionals to assist them with solving their job, training and education, and career development problems.
Monster.com is one of the world's largest commercial electronic job sites. The website offers a full array of information about jobs, training, and career development. The site currently includes approximately 400,000 job openings, seven million resumes and 30,000 employers.
Monster.com recently launched Monsterlearning, its version of America's Learning eXchange.
Monster.com evaluated ALX and deemed it to be the market leader in providing education and training information and sought help from ACK in creating Monsterlearning.
Monster.com spends millions of dollars on advertising and has gained worldwide name recognition.

Collaboration Opportunities

Use of Common Language to classify information.

Monster intends to adopt, use and promote the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) taxonomy, the government standard.
Monster will use the O*Net structure to code occupations.
Monster will use O*Net as the basis for career planning activities on its website.

Development and use of the Public Key, Private Key Infrastructure of the Internet to store and display validated credential and assessment information.

Monster will collaborate with DOL regarding the continued development of its Career Management Account.

Data Sharing

Monster and America's Job Bank will share transaction data stemming from use of both websites providing real time labor market information.

Monster will use America's Job Bank as one of the destinations for distribution of their customers' job openings.
Monster Learning and America's Learning eXchange will offer learning providers options to simultaneously register and participate in each site.

Monster Learning and America's Learning eXchange will explore sharing transaction data to produce trend and other industry data relating to the learning industry.

Monster and DOL will adopt and use to the extent practicable, the HR XML standard for describing jobs and exchange of job order information.

Monster will explore the adoption, use and promotion of the specifications in the new Scalable Content Object Reference Model developed jointly by DOL and DOD with regard to Learning Management Systems.

Monster Newsletter

Monster will develop and distribute an employer newsletter providing a forum for the Secretary of Labor and other DOL officials for addressing issues relevant to the 21^st Century Workforce.

Who Benefits?

Job seekers, employers and learners will have more choices and faster, more flexible access to the information they need.
The real-time labor market information generated by the combined transactions of AJB and Monster.com will provide businesses, economic developers, workforce development professionals, State workforce investment agencies, local workforce investment boards, and others with a current look at what's happening in their communities.
ACK products and services will receive increased exposure and traffic.
The size of the ACK holdings - jobs, resumes and learning offerings - will increase.
The adoption of a common language for describing and classifying information will set de facto standards for distributed web content and greatly facilitate dissemination of and access to the content.