Westside Story Newspaper – Online The News of The Empire – Sharing the Quest for Excellence
SACRAMENTO, CA – Last week, Governor Newsom announced that the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR ) awarded $31 million in California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship (COYA) grants to 51 projects across the state. Assemblymember Holden’s legislation, Assembly Bill 2273, Paid Career Technical Education Internships sought to strengthen and fund Career Technical Education Internships to ensure students are given the opportunity to explore careers and enter the workforce with valuable experience. Designed to create inclusive and accessible opportunities for disadvantaged youth, COYA grants include specific criteria that achieve AB 2273’s intended goals of prioritizing foster youth and disabled youth.
“It takes a collective effort to expand opportunities for our youth across the state and that’s why I want to thank Governor Newsom for including proposed amendments to my legislation in this important funding project. Our young people will benefit greatly from these apprenticeships and because of these guidelines it will be harder for eligible young people to miss out.”
DIR 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.
