Pre-apprenticeship program helps disadvantaged young people overcome barriers
WASHINGTON – To help remove academic and training barriers faced by young people, the U.S. Department of Labor today announced a $90 million funding opportunity in YouthBuild Program grants to support pre-apprenticeships in high-demand industries including construction, healthcare, information technology and hospitality.
Grants will support occupational skills training, employment services and educational guidance to disadvantaged young people, from ages 16 to 24, in communities where barriers to basic academic and career skills development exist.
Administered by the department’s Employment and Training Administration, and supported by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, the grants will fund approximately 75 projects nationwide with individual grants ranging from $700,000 to $1.5 million. The funding opportunity follows the department’s 2021 guidance that prioritizes quality jobs, green building and community violence intervention.
In August 2022, the department added the YouthBuild program to the Biden-Harris administration’s Justice40 initiative, which aims to ensure that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are overburdened by pollution.
YouthBuild grants have enabled program participants to support initiatives in construction, technology and the care economy such as the following:
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