NextGen Apprenticeships: The Latest on the CA Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship Grant

In a significant stride to uplift and empower at-risk youth, the Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) unveiled the CA Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship Grant (COYA) during National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) 2023. This initiative is dedicated to connecting opportunity youth, ages 16 -24, facing social-economic challenges with comprehensive pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship opportunities. This grant aims to provide youth with the practical experience needed to succeed in various new professional apprenticeship sectors such as teaching, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and information technology.

This strategic investment provides grants for the purpose of providing funding for existing apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs or to develop new apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs to serve opportunity youth. Under the grant program, services shall be delivered primarily through collaborative, mission-driven, community-based organizations with experience in providing services to, and with relevant relationship with opportunity youth. The COYA grant is a call to action for all organizations wanting to make a difference in workforce development and offers a lifeline to opportunity youth to enter high paying, fulfilling careers.

Solicitation for the COYA Grant will open in the first quarter of 2024. To stay informed and to receive timely updates on the solicitation opening, subscribe to the DAS Newsletter.

January 2024