The Department of Labor announced Wednesday $90 million in grants to support pre-apprenticeship training in healthcare and other high-demand industries.
The YouthBuild program grants, administered by the Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration and supported by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, will fund approximately 75 projects nationwide, with individual grants ranging from $700,000 to $1.5 million. The grants are meant to help remove academic and training barriers faced by young people.
YouthBuild is a community-based pre-apprenticeship program that provides job training and educational opportunities for at-risk youth aged 16 to 24 who previously have dropped out of high school.
“Pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs are a well-established system to build workforce pipelines, yet they are newer in the healthcare sector, and there are only a few examples at this time in aging services. The YouthBuild program specifically works on employment skills for at-risk adults, which could potentially be a way to expand the workforce pipeline in the aging services sector,” Jenna Kellerman, director of workforce strategy and development at LeadingAge, told the McKnight’s Business Daily Wednesday.
Apprenticeship programs can help pave the way for workers to advance in their careers without added financial pressures, she added.
“Apprenticeships can offer a formal, systemic, and more equitable pathway for staff to advance and build expertise,” Kellerman said.
The Labor Department added the YouthBuild program to the White House’s Justice40 initiative in August. The initiative aims to ensure that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities for training and workforce development, climate, clean energy and other federal investments.
Eligible for grants are:
- Public housing/Indian housing authorities.
- Nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education.
- Public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; and independent school districts.
- State, county, city and township governments, and special district governments.
- Native American tribal organizations and federally recognized Native American tribal governments.
“All DOL-funded YouthBuild programs must train participants in construction. Since DOL introduced Construction Plus in 2012, healthcare is by far the most popular additional training offered by grantees. Most of those grantees have trained participants to earn a certified nursing assistant credential,” a representative from the Department of Labor told the McKnight’s Business Daily Wednesday.
Each project also may include occupational skills training as it prepares participants for jobs in a variety of careers, including infrastructure. Each project also contains “wrap-around” services such as mentoring, trauma-informed care, personal counseling and employment. As an example, North Brooklyn YouthBuild in New York offers training in construction and healthcare with a range of credentials available to participants.
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