Cross-Agency Cooperation and New Funding Opportunities to Support Youth Apprenticeship

The U.S. Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Education are engaging in a new level of cross-agency coordination to support youth employment opportunities. Part of this effort has involved addressing traditional policy and funding silos that exist across K-12 education, postsecondary education, and workforce programs. For youth apprenticeship programs, which bridge all three systems to create more seamless pathways through them, this interagency cooperation and coordination is promising.

Two collaborative federal initiatives are tackling these silos head on. The Biden-Harris administration’s Raise the Bar: Unlocking Career Success initiative will support collaboration among schools, colleges, workforce development agencies, and industry partners to build clearer pathways for students. With the support of the $120 billion dedicated to K-12 education in the American Rescue Plan and all other federal education funds, the administration is expanding access to skills-based learning and training pathways like Registered Apprenticeships. Funding in the 2023 Federal budget includes a $50 million increase for CTE state grants and $25 million for the Biden-Harris Administration’s Career Connected High Schools program. This program will support integration between the secondary, postsecondary, and career ecosystems to build pathways for youth that include four key strategies - dual enrollment, paid work-based learning, industry credentials, and career advising. The Department of Education is spearheading Raise the Bar with support from the Departments of Commerce and Labor.

In addition, The Department of Labor has launched the Youth Employment Works strategy. The strategy has three goals:

• Ensure the workforce system offers young people access to jobs regardless of the pathway they are on
• Encourage partners across the public and private sectors to invest in young people’s workforce training
• Guarantee access to paid work experiences in quality career pathways for all young people

As part of this strategy, the Department has issued a Call to Action on youth employment. This is an effort to learn about and advance “silo-busting strategies”. The Department is collecting promising stories from employers, program providers, philanthropists and anyone else with ideas for how workforce systems can better support youth through the Call to Action website.

On the heels of these initiatives, federal agencies have announced several funding opportunities that reaffirm the value of collaboration and alignment across the different sectors and systems that serve youth. Some of these grant opportunities are designed to prepare young adults for jobs that will be created by the substantial federal investments made through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and CHIPS and Science Act; others will support particular regions or populations of workers. While these grant opportunities are not specifically focused on advancing youth apprenticeship, the requirements and priorities bode well for high-quality youth apprenticeship programs that are grounded in close cooperation across education systems, the public workforce system, and employers.

This roundup takes a closer look at the funding opportunities available and points practitioners toward the information they need to take advantage of this moment to further their youth apprenticeship work.

U.S. Department of Education

Career Z Challenge

The U.S. Department of Education has launched the Career Z Challenge, a $2.5. million multi-phase prize competition seeking innovative ideas to expand work-based learning (WBL) opportunities for high school students.

Perkins-eligible schools, districts, and consortiums are encouraged to share their ideas for creating or enhancing WBL opportunities in CTE programs. The Department of Education is specifically looking for WBL opportunities that engage collaborative cross-sector ecosystems. This makes youth apprenticeship partnerships well-suited to participate in the challenge since youth apprenticeships require coordination among employers, high schools, community colleges, students and their families, and other partners.

Interested applicants have until June 7, 2023, to submit their proposals. Entrants can apply as either a ‘Novice’ creating a new WBL ecosystem or an ‘Expander’ enhancing an existing WBL partnership. Up to 100 semi-finalists will be selected to participate in the next phase of the Challenge. During phase two, semi-finalists will receive technical assistance and participate in a community of practice. At the end of phase two, up to 10 finalists will be selected for phase three.

In the third and final phase, finalists will be immersed in an accelerator to begin implementing their projects. At the end of phase three, finalists will submit a report on their results. Lessons learned from the Career Z Challenge will inform models of high-quality, sustainable WBL experiences for students nationwide. Interested organizations can register to join the challenge community at Challenge.gov.

U.S. Department of Commerce

STEM Talent Challenge

The STEM Talent Challenge supports organizations developing and implementing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) talent training systems to match the needs of their region’s innovation economy. The FY23 STEM Talent Challenge will award a total of $4.5 million in grants to organizations creating and implementing STEM talent development strategies in fields such as advanced manufacturing and robotics, aerospace and defense, and climate technologies.

The notice of funding is explicit in calling for training strategies that include some or all the components of Registered Apprenticeship (i.e.,business involvement, structured on-the-job training, related instruction, rewards for skill gains, and culmination in a national occupational credential), placing youth apprenticeship programs in a strong position to compete for these funds.

Awards of up to $500,000 will be granted to implement programs over a 24 month performance period. Applicants should know that this grant requires a 1-1 funding match. This grant has very wide eligibility relative to most Federal funding opportunities. Nonprofits, state and local governments, economic development organizations, higher education institutions, and research parks are all eligible to apply.

Interested organizations can watch the STEM Talent Challenge Informational Webinar for more information, and will find the FY23 application on the Economic Development Administration (EDA) website. The Application deadline is June 12, 2023.

U.S. Department of Labor

Workforce Pathways for Youth Grants

Apprenticeship programs that help youth in rural areas may be interested in applying for the Workforce Pathways for Youth Grants. These grants will support programs that provide career guidance, work readiness, skills training, and employment opportunities for youth who face barriers to success.

The grant program has a total of $15 million available and will award eight grants of up to $2 million each. The grant period is 36 months, starting in September 2023. The deadline to apply is May 19, 2023. To be eligible, organizations must be a national Out of School Time (OST) nonprofit with a 501(c)(3) status and must not have received funding from the FY 2021 Workforce Pathways for Youth grant.

In addition to Registered Apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, grant funds can be used for career exploration services, work readiness, career counseling, and youth placement services. Programs must show how they will align with the local workforce development system and the school system. They must also demonstrate how their program will serve youth in rural areas, especially people of color or people with disabilities.

Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) Grants

Currently, women make up only about 14% of all registered apprentices. The Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) grant helps recruit, train, and retain more women in apprenticeship and encourages them to pursue nontraditional occupations. . The grants are jointly administered by the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration and Women’s Bureau.

While the WANTO grants go back many years, this is the first year that youth apprenticeship is specifically included as one of the types of activities supported by the grant. Funds can also be used to provide technical assistance to employers and unions on creating environments where women can succeed and on providing support services to improve women’s retention.

In 2023 $5,000,000 will be available to fund six to fourteen projects ranging from $350,000 to $750,000. Community-based organizations with 501(c)(3) status are eligible to apply. The deadline for submitting applications is May 29, 2023, and information on how to apply is linked on the funding opportunity announcement.

Workforce Opportunities for Rural Communities (WORC)

The DOL recently announced $44 million in funding dedicated to the Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities (WORC) initiative. The grants range from $150,000 to $1.5 million to support projects that address the employment and training needs of the regional workforce, are created in collaboration with community partners, and are aligned to existing economic development strategies.

These grants are specifically targeted towards rural counties in the Appalachian Region, Delta Region, and Northern Border Region. Applicants can be located outside of these areas as long as projects benefit people in the specified regions.

While youth apprenticeship is not specifically cited in the funding opportunity, Registered Apprenticeships are an allowable activity. Grant funds can also be used for other types of work-based learning, training, supportive services, employer services, and strategic planning activities.

The grants are administered by the DOL Employment and Training Administration in partnership with the Appalachian Regional Commission, Delta Regional Authority and Northern Border Regional Commission. The DOL encourages interested applicants to visit the regional websites for more information on pre-application technical assistance meetings. More information on the WORC initiative grants and the link to apply is at Grants.gov. The application deadline is June 13, 2023.

Building Pathways to Infrastructure Grants

The Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs Grant Program was created to provide funding for public-private partnerships to develop and scale worker-centered sector strategy training programs that prepare the skilled workforce needed to meet the demands of the infrastructure investments made through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).

These grants emphasize using career pathways programs that lead to credentials recognized by employers, work-based learning training models, including Registered Apprenticeships, and supportive services to increase participation and retention in these programs. To maximize the impact of the BIL investment and other investments such as the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act (CHIPS), as well as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), this grant program will train job seekers in advanced manufacturing, information technology, and occupations that support renewable energy, transportation, and broadband infrastructure.

To be eligible, a program must serve participants who are at least 17 years old and not currently enrolled in secondary school. These requirements mean that most youth apprenticeship programs are not eligible for this opportunity. However, youth apprenticeships that serve opportunity youth who are disconnected from school and work could consider pursuing this grant funding.

Applicants can apply for a development or a scaling track. The development track will support new sector partnerships and will target smaller or rural communities. The scaling track will invest in established partnerships that have demonstrated effectiveness in implementing sector strategy training programs in one or more infrastructure-related sectors.

DOL released a pre-recorded Prospective Applicant Webinar and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page that is available on the DOL.gov website. Interested partnerships can apply to the grant program until July 7th, 2023.

In addition to these new funding opportunities, the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education recently released guidance to help workforce and education leaders make creative use of existing funding streams to support youth apprenticeship and educator apprenticeships. Practitioners and policymakers can learn more about the Department of Education’s recent guidance letter at an upcoming webinar hosted by New America and Advance CTE, Leveraging Federal Resources for Career-Connected Learning to Advance Youth Apprenticeship, at 2pm ET on May 23rd, featuring Luke Rhine, Deputy Assistant Secretary of OCTAE. The webinar will elevate opportunities to leverage federal resources to support youth apprenticeship and work-based learning as part of a broader career preparation ecosystem.

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