WSIN25-15 — YouthBuild 2025
The March application deadline has passed and DOL has moved YouthBuild 2025 into award implementation. For California WDBs, the brief is now most useful as a map of pre-apprenticeship design, AI-literacy expectations, Registered Apprenticeship connections, and local partnership opportunities.
Jan. 8, 2026
$98 million
Mar. 2, 2026 · closed
2026 awards issued
Source + trust record
Source checked as of September 18, 2026. Primary authority: USDOL YouthBuild 2026 awardees and current YouthBuild program guidance.
Check result: The March 2, 2026 application deadline has passed and DOL has issued 2026 YouthBuild awards. YouthBuild remains a pre-apprenticeship, education, supportive-service, and community-benefit model with required construction training and optional Construction Plus pathways. Local partnership and co-enrollment suggestions on this page are implementation ideas for non-grantees, not grant requirements. This AI-assisted brief does not receive human legal or compliance review. Official sources control.
The bottom line
YouthBuild is a pre-apprenticeship and education model, not just a construction program.
The 2025 competition funded programs for youth ages 16-24 that combine academic support, occupational training, employment services, wraparound supports, construction experience, and connections to Registered Apprenticeship. Construction remains required, while Construction Plus can add training in other high-demand sectors.
DOL’s 2026 awardee file includes California recipients such as Alliance for Community Empowerment in Canoga Park and Coalition for Responsible Community Development in Los Angeles.
The YouthBuild model
Education + pre-apprenticeship + community benefit.
Support toward a high school diploma or equivalency and continued education.
Construction and optional additional high-demand sectors.
Training designed to connect participants to Registered Apprenticeship and other quality careers.
Transportation, childcare, housing, and other services that support participation.
What stood out in the 2025 competition
DOL tightened the connection to apprenticeship and AI literacy.
The funding announcement set a new goal around entry into Registered Apprenticeship within one year after exit and required applicants to incorporate AI literacy into the education component, while encouraging AI literacy in occupational training as well.
Operational considerations for WDBs
Use funded YouthBuild programs as pathway partners.
Identify programs serving your region or nearby labor markets.
Help grantees build credible direct-entry or articulated pathways into Registered Apprenticeship.
Avoid duplicative service delivery and use co-enrollment where it improves the participant pathway.
YouthBuild’s new AI expectations can provide examples for broader youth-program design.
Source authority
The award file now supersedes the old “open grant” framing.
DOL YouthBuild 2025 funding announcement
DOL Grants Awarded — 2026 YouthBuild
YouthBuild FOA-ETA-26-38 awardees
Local partnership and co-enrollment suggestions are practical recommendations, not grant requirements for non-grantee WDBs.
Rewritten from an expired funding notice into an award-implementation and youth-pathway brief, with apprenticeship and AI-literacy emphasis.