1. Apprenticeship Standards

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. A second round of COYA Grants is now open.

Timeline

Applications Open: February 26, 2025
Applications Close: April 10, 2025

Action Dates

Funding Details

Type of Funding: Grant
Estimated Total Funding in Round 2: $16,000,000
Round 2 Award Amounts:

• Apprenticeship Grants up to $500,000
• 1–2-year grant period

Implementation Grant

• Pre-Apprenticeship Grants up to $500,000 - $2,000,000
• 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 $500,000 - $2,000,000
• 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.
• 2 year grant period

Application Materials

COYA round 2 is now open. To start, fully review:

• COYA Round 2 Solicitation for Proposals (SFP)
• COYA Round 2 Questions and Answers

Application Process 

All applications are required to be submitted online using the California Outreach Rapid Deployment (CORD) platform. To begin the application submission process through CORD, please follow the steps outlined below. 

• Step 1: Create an account on CORD by visiting www.cordhub.org.  
• Step 2: During the registration, provide your business or organizational email address, as well as your first and last name.  
• Step 3: Once logged in, navigate to the "Networks" menu and click on “My Applications”. Click on "Start New Application" to begin the process.  
• Step 4: Click on “Apply Now” for any of the following options:
  • DAS COYA Grant Program 2025-27 – Apprenticeship Planning Grant (COYA -AP)
  • DAS COYA Grant Program 2025-27 – Pre- Apprenticeship Implementation Grant (COYA -PI)
  • DAS COYA Grant Program 2025-27 – Apprenticeship Implementation Grant (COYA -AI)

Every applicant must set up an account with CORD. To apply for the grant, please complete and submit a proposal for each category you are interested in. All necessary application materials and uploads should be done via the CORD platform.  
All applications must be completed and submitted via the California Outreach Rapid Deployment (CORD) platform by April 10, 2025 at 12pm PST.
Other CORD Resources:

• For a step-by-step guide on how to register and link your account to a business or organization, check out this guide.​​
• ​For a recorded version of the guide, click here.​​
• ​For commonly asked questions and responses, click here.​​
• ​For inquiries about the program, email dasgrantunit@dir.ca.gov. ​

Register here for CORD Office Hours for technical support

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:

• 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

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:

• 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

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.

• 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. 

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 1 awardees were announced in July 2024 and were aimed at bolstering support to uplift opportunity youth into high-paying careers with direct career pathways through registered pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs. 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 1 Highlights

• 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

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.

• COYA (PY) 2024 – 2026 Grantee List
• COYA (PY) 2024 – 2026 Grantee List

March 2025