California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship (COYA) Grant
The goal of the California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship (COYA) Grant is to develop and test innovative practices to increase the participation of opportunity youth in pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs, and to demonstrate the impact of apprenticeship on employment and earnings outcomes for opportunity youth.
COYA was established in SB 191 for the purposes of awarding grant funds to eligible applicants to provide funding for existing apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs or to develop new apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs to serve opportunity youth and satisfy the goals and objectives of the grant program.
COYA awarded $31 million in grants through its first round, which was announced in July 2024 and has a performance period of 2024-2026, more details below.
COYA awarded $15.4 million in grants through its second round, which was announced in June 2025 and has a performance period of 2025-2027, more details below.
COYA awarded $13.2 million in continuation grants through its third round, which was announced in April 2026 and has a performance period of 2026-2028, more details below.
Timeline
COYA Round 3 (invite only)Applications Opened: December, 2025
Applications Closed: February, 2026
Action Dates
December, 2025 |
Eligible grantees from Round 1 and 2 invite to apply for Round 3 Continuation Grants |
February, 2026 |
Deadline for Round 3 Proposals |
April 30, 2026 |
Round 3 Awardees announced |
Funding Details
Type of Funding: Grant
Total Funding in Round 3: $13,217,214
Implementation Grant
- Pre-Apprenticeship Grants up to $100,000 - $1,000,000
- Up to $12,000 per pre-apprentice with a split of:
- $6,000 per pre-apprentice for supportive services, training, recruitment, administrative costs, and other allowable expenses.
- Up to $6,000 per pre-apprentice to go towards an educational stipend during pre-apprenticeship training. 100% of this funding must go to pre-apprentice. This is NOT a wage supplement since a Pre-Apprenticeship should not have paid OJT, but rather the intent of this funding is that it is an educational stipend to participants during training.
- Apprenticeship Grants up to $100,000 - $1,000,000
- Up to $10,000 per Apprentice
- Focus on the supportive services for opportunity youth apprentices and providing funding for getting a program launched and scaled.
- Funding priority will be given to those that utilize more of the funding for supportive services.
- 22 month performance period
Application Materials
COYA Round 3 is now closed, and was by invite only.
COYA Round 2 Application Materials
- COYA Round 2 Solicitation for Proposals (SFP)
- COYA Round 2 Questions and Answers
Application Process
To qualify for the COYA Round 3 Continuation funding, applicants had to:
- Be a current COYA Round 1 or Round 2 grantee
- Meet the required performance thresholds:
- Implementation Grantees must have served at least 40 percent of the total contracted participants by September 30, 2025
- Planning Grantees must have fully registered their program with DAS, or submitted final draft standards to the Program Planning and Review (PPR) team, by December 5, 2025
- Be in good standing with DAS, including timely reporting, fiscal compliance, and adherence to grant terms and conditions.
- Current or former foster youth
- Currently or formerly Pell eligible
- Currently or formerly WIOA Youth or Adult eligible
- Currently or formerly enrolled in a Title 1 school.
- Residing in a high poverty census tract
- Formerly incarcerated
- Youth parent
- Person with disability
- Non-profit Community-Based Organizations
- Workforce Development Boards
- Unions
- Local Education Agencies
- Community Colleges
- County offices of education
- TK-12
- Adult Education
- Regional Occupational Programs
- Regional consortia of community college districts
- Apprenticeship Intermediaries
- Apprenticeship program sponsors
- If any Planning grantee has registered their program, they will be prioritized for Implementation funding.
- COYA Round 1 Apprenticeship Planning Grantees that have submitted their final draft of standards to the DAS Program Planning and Review team by the launch of the SFP will be considered for Implementation Grants.
- Total Funding Awarded: $13,217,214 – 25 Grantees
- Total Funding Awarded: $15,428,999 – 29 Grantees
- Apprenticeship Planning Grant (COYA-AP): $7,192,091 – 18 Grantees
- Pre-Apprenticeship Implementation Grant (COYA-PI): $3,088,000 – 4 Grantees
- Apprenticeship Implementation Grant (COYA-AI): $5,148,908 – 7 Grantees
- Total Funding Awarded: $31,180,910 – 51 Grantees
- Pre-Apprenticeship Planning Grant (COYA-PP): $2,682.915 - 11 Grantees
- Apprenticeship Planning Grant (COYA-AP): $8,427,007 – 21 Grantees
- Pre-Apprenticeship Implementation Grant (COYA-PI): $10,975,070 – 10 Grantees
- Apprenticeship Implementation Grant (COYA-AI): $9,095,918 – 9 Grantees
Applicants to COYA Round 3 were by invite only following the above criteria.
More Information:
Sector: The focus of the COYA Grant is on Interagency Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship (IACA) connected programs. These are programs that serve occupations across all sectors of the economy except for the building trades. As examples, this includes healthcare, education, advanced manufacturing, information technology, public sector, transportation and more. Programs serving occupations in the fire trades are eligible to apply for this funding, however any proposal serving these occupations must be approved by the California Apprenticeship Council (CAC). The grant program does not apply to building and construction trades programs that are within the jurisdiction of the CAC.
Target population: DAS is summarizing the target population for COYA with the term “opportunity youth,” which in the context of this funding opportunity includes individuals from 16 to 24 years of age who are at risk of disconnection or are disconnected from the education system or employment, unhoused, in the child welfare, juvenile justice, or criminal legal systems, living in concentrated poverty, or are facing barriers to labor market participation. Opportunity youth include those that face chronic opportunity educational achievement gaps, attend schools in communities of concentrated poverty, or attend high schools with a negative school climate.
All grantees will need to demonstrate that participants are within the eligible age range and obtain proof that a participant meets one of the following criteria:
Eligible Applicants: 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 relationships with opportunity youth, consistent with the objectives of the grant program. Eligible grant applicants must demonstrate a history of at least 2 years of serving opportunity youth in education, employment or workforce programs and have demonstrated successes in supporting opportunity youth to access employment. Eligible entity types must be:
Note: For Profit entities are not eligible for this funding.
COYA Round 1 Planning Grantees who have completed their deliverables, will be prioritized for funding in the Implementation categories.
COYA Round 1 grantees cannot apply for the same category grant with the same occupations for which they are already being funded. COYA Round 1 grantees applying for a new grant category or with new occupations must be in good standing with their current COYA grant to be considered for additional COYA grant funding.
DAS shall require that grant recipients demonstrate a commitment to high road principles, as described in subdivision (r) of Section 14005 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, and shall evaluate the performance of recipients based on those principles.
Contacts: Division of Apprenticeship Standards (State of CA)
1515 Clay St, 19th Floor, Ste 190, Oakland CA 94612
(415) 703-4920
DASGrantUnit@dir.ca.gov
Grantor’s homepage: Division of Apprenticeship Standards
Awardees
COYA Round 3 awardees were announced in April 2026. The objective of COYA is to expand relationships with community based organizations and labor market stakeholders that serve opportunity youth who face barriers to labor market participation. Through these partnerships, we aim to uplift opportunity youth with the resources necessary to enter and thrive in high-paying careers.
COYA Round 3 Highlights
Below is an accessible PDF with the COYA (PY) 2026 - 2028 Grantee list. Please note that the accompanying Excel file is a non-ADA file but has the exact same information as the accessible PDF, just in a sortable format.
COYA Round 2 Highlights
Below is an accessible PDF with the COYA (PY) 2025 - 2027 Grantee list. Please note that the accompanying Excel file is a non-ADA file but has the exact same information as the accessible PDF, just in a sortable format.
COYA Round 1 awardees were announced in July 2024 and have a performance period of 2024-2026.
COYA Round 1 Highlights
Below is an accessible PDF with the COYA (PY) 2024 - 2026 Grantee list. Please note that the accompanying Excel file is a non-ADA file but has the exact same information as the accessible PDF, just in a sortable format.
What's New
in Funding
November 2025