Best Federal Grants for Job Training Programs 2026

According to DOL's PY2026 WIOA allotment notice (opens in a new tab), states received $873.3 million for WIOA Adult activities and $1.095 billion for Dislocated Worker activities in PY2026, and $947 million is available for Youth. That money reaches training providers through local workforce boards, not through applications to DOL. For most job training programs, the first revenue question isn't which grant to write. It's whether your programs are on the state's Eligible Training Provider list.

Here's a hypothetical to size it: if a state's ITAs averaged $5,000, a provider enrolling 200 ITA-funded students a year would bring in $1 million without winning a competitive grant. Competitive grants such as YouthBuild, Second Chance Act, and the closed 2026 DOL rounds pay to build or expand a program. ITAs, board contracts, SNAP E&T reimbursement, employer fees, and tuition keep it running.

Summary: Best Federal Programs for Job Training Organizations

As of October 17, 2026, 3 of the 9 routes below are open or always available to a local nonprofit; the rest are closed until the next round or go to states, colleges, or intermediaries first.

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1. WIOA Individual Training Accounts: The Largest Federal Training Revenue Stream

Best for: Occupational training providers with completion and job placement data, offering programs in occupations your local board lists as in demand.

Revenue per client: ITA amount set by your state and local board Access path: State Eligible Training Provider (ETP) approval PY2026 money: $873.3 million Adult and $1.095 billion Dislocated Worker to states, per the Federal Register notice

According to the PY2026 notice, Adult and Dislocated Worker funds come in two parts: "base" funds available July 1, 2026 and "advance" funds available October 1, 2026. Your local board's training budget for the year depends on both, so a board that sounds tight in August may have more ITA money after October 1.

Training providers don't apply to DOL for these funds. Each state keeps a public list of Eligible Training Providers whose programs meet its standards for completion, employment, and earnings. A WIOA participant who qualifies for training gets an Individual Training Account and picks a program from that list. Programs in healthcare, information technology, construction trades, commercial driving, and advanced manufacturing tend to draw the most ITA demand, because local boards steer training toward occupations on their in-demand lists.

For example, a nonprofit running a 12-week certified nursing assistant course that costs $4,500 per student can take ITA students once the course is on the list, as long as the price fits under the local ITA cap. A common mistake is setting tuition above the cap: the student then has to cover the gap, and case managers tend to refer people to cheaper programs.

Becoming an ETP: Applications go to your state workforce agency. Most states ask for completion and employment outcomes from earlier cohorts, evidence that employers hire your graduates, and program cost details. New programs often need to run one or two cohorts on other funding before approval.

WIOA Youth: According to the Federal Register notice, $946,979,800 is available for PY2026 Youth Activities after set-asides. Local boards spend it through youth provider contracts, and WIOA section 123 requires boards to award those contracts competitively. At least 75% of Youth funds must serve out-of-school youth ages 16 to 24, so a sector training program for young adults who've left school is a strong fit. Watch your local board's procurement page for youth RFPs; many run on a multi-year cycle.

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2. DOL Apprenticeship Building America: The Largest Competitive Apprenticeship Grant

Best for: Training nonprofits that sponsor Registered Apprenticeship programs or run pre-apprenticeship programs feeding them.

Latest ABA round: Round 2, $95 million available, closed April 15, 2024 2026 replacement: Pay for Performance Incentive Payments Program (FOA-ETA-26-19), closed April 3, 2026 Direct to a local nonprofit: No open route in 2026

According to DOL's ABA Round 2 page (opens in a new tab), Round 2 made $95 million available and closed April 15, 2024. ABA was funded through annual DOL appropriations, not the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. According to the Maryland Department of Labor (opens in a new tab), the Amalgamated Transit Union received $8,000,000 in Round 2 for pre-apprenticeship and Registered Apprenticeship programs for transit workers, among 43 awardees nationally.

No third ABA round has been announced. In 2026, DOL's funding-opportunity list (opens in a new tab) shows a different model instead: the Pay for Performance Incentive Payments Program, which closed April 3, 2026. According to Associated Builders and Contractors' summary of DOL's July 7, 2026 announcement, five organizations received about $162 million: the Florida Department of Commerce ($40 million), Jobs for the Future ($40 million), the Wireless Infrastructure Association ($29.9 million), Clark University ($27 million), and the ASE Foundation ($25 million). These grantees pay incentives to Registered Apprenticeship sponsors based on verified apprentice enrollment and growth.

What this means for a training nonprofit: If you sponsor a Registered Apprenticeship program, or partner with an employer that does, contact the intermediary covering your sector to ask how sponsors enroll. If you run pre-apprenticeship only, the money reaches you indirectly, through sponsors that hire your graduates. Don't confuse any of this with the State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula: under TEGL 08-25 (opens in a new tab), SAEF Round 4 offered about $85 million by formula to state apprenticeship agencies, with no competitive track for nonprofits.

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3. DOL Strengthening Community Colleges: Sector-Based Training at Scale

Best for: Community colleges leading statewide consortia; nonprofits only as employer or workforce partners.

Round 6: $65 million for 6 to 10 awards of $6.5 million to $10.8 million Status: Closed May 20, 2026 Who can lead: A community college heading a consortium of colleges

According to the SCC Round 6 notice (FOA-ETA-26-40) (opens in a new tab), DOL offered $65 million for 6 to 10 awards of $6.5 million to $10.8 million. Round 6 focuses on short-term programs that can qualify for Workforce Pell Grants, which section 83002 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21) created. The structure changed sharply from earlier rounds: a community college must apply as the lead of a consortium, and the consortium generally has to include at least half of the community colleges in its state. Consortium members are limited to community colleges and public or private nonprofit four-year institutions.

According to DOL's SCC page (opens in a new tab), Round 5 distributed $65 million in December 2024 to 18 lead institutions. Round 6 funds far fewer, larger, state-level projects.

Eligibility red flag: A standalone training nonprofit can't lead an SCC application and can't be a consortium member in Round 6. Your role is as a required partner: an employer intermediary, a provider of support services, or a pipeline of students into the college's Workforce Pell programs. If your state's college system won a Round 6 award, ask the lead college which short-term programs it's building and whether it needs a partner for recruitment, wraparound services, or job placement.

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4. DOL YouthBuild: The Largest Open-Competition Grant for Local Training Nonprofits

Best for: Nonprofits training young adults ages 16 to 24 who've left school, with a construction or other pre-apprenticeship track and a high school equivalency component.

2025 round: $99.5 million to 66 organizations in 32 states, awarded July 2026 Award range: $1,012,000 to $2,000,000 Period: Participants served through October 31, 2028

According to DOL's 2025 YouthBuild award list (opens in a new tab), DOL awarded $100 million in YouthBuild grants to 66 organizations in 32 states in July 2026, following a December 2025 funding notice. For the first time, DOL set a target for the share of participants who enter a Registered Apprenticeship within one year of exit, and it required grantees to teach AI literacy in the education component. YouthBuild's funding notice (FOA-ETA-26-38) closed March 2, 2026, and no new notice is open.

Grantsights analysis of the 66 awards: Grantsights added up the "DOL funding amount" for each of the 66 grantees on DOL's list and matched each recipient name and state against every YouthBuild grant (assistance listing 17.274) with spending activity since October 2017 on USAspending.gov (opens in a new tab), a set of 520 awards with start dates back to 2012. The awards total $99,469,802. The median award was $1,500,000; 22 organizations received exactly $1.5 million and 8 received the $2 million maximum. DOL's list codes 46 sites as urban, 18 as rural, and 2 as mixed. At least 40 of the 66 grantees (61%) held an earlier YouthBuild grant under the same name; no earlier award appears for the other 26.

The takeaway for a new applicant: YouthBuild rewards a track record, but 26 newcomers still won. One nonprofit in Tukwila, Washington, Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Employment for Women (ANEW), won $1,500,000 with no earlier YouthBuild grant on record; DOL's summary says it'll run its state-approved construction pre-apprenticeship with build-site roles from Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity and education from Clover Park Technical College. Jail to Jobs, Inc. in Austin, Texas won $1,500,000 to train 100 participants in construction and HVAC on transitional housing projects. The Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP | BIG STEP) in Milwaukee won $1,281,000 as a first-time lead after more than 25 years as a YouthBuild subcontractor to Employ Milwaukee, the county's workforce board. That last path, delivering YouthBuild services under another organization's grant first, is the clearest way to build the record reviewers look for. Repeat grantees include Portland YouthBuilders in Oregon and Operation Fresh Start in Madison, Wisconsin.

Where applications fail: an application fails because it treats Registered Apprenticeship as a future goal. With DOL now tracking apprenticeship entry within a year of exit, show signed agreements with named apprenticeship sponsors before you apply. For YouthBuild scoring detail, see the federal job training grants overview.

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5. DOJ Second Chance Act Workforce Grants: Training in Correctional and Reentry Settings

Best for: Training nonprofits that already work inside jails or prisons, or with probation and parole, and can document employment and recidivism outcomes.

FY2026 notice: About $20 million; 10 education awards and 10 employment awards of up to $1 million each Status: Closed (JustGrants deadline October 1, 2026) Award period: 36 months starting October 1, 2026

According to BJA's FY2026 notice (O-BJA-2026-172698) (opens in a new tab), the Second Chance Act Improving Reentry Education and Employment Outcomes program offered about $20 million, released August 17, 2026. Category 2 funds employment programs, such as a career pathway system informed by local labor demand, for adults with 2 years or less before release. Nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status, faith-based organizations, colleges, and governments were all eligible, with no match required. The FY2025 notice, by comparison, capped awards at $900,000.

The biggest eligibility hurdle: nonprofits had to attach an MOU with the correctional agency that runs the facility they'd recruit from, or the agency that supervises probation or parole for that population. A common mistake is waiting until the notice is out to start that MOU. Corrections agencies move slowly, and BJA's FY2026 window from release to the Grants.gov (opens in a new tab) step was 38 days. Start the MOU now for the FY2027 cycle. For other BJA reentry notices, see best grants for reentry programs 2026 and the Second Chance Act reentry grants guide.

DOL's reentry money moved to states in 2026. Grantsights analysis of USAspending.gov (opens in a new tab) FY2025 obligations under Reentry Employment Opportunities (assistance listing 17.270, grant award types 02 to 05, nonprofit recipients) found 24 nonprofits with net new obligations totaling $95.4 million (other nonprofits' deobligations bring the program's net nonprofit total to $89.6 million), including the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation ($9.1 million), Midwest Urban Strategies ($9.1 million), STRIVE International ($5.06 million), Dress for Success Phoenix ($4.0 million), Fedcap ($4.0 million), and Goodwill Industries of Kentucky ($1.94 million). The 2026 RESTART round was built differently. According to DOL's RESTART fact sheet (opens in a new tab).pdf), only states, territories, tribes, and national or regional intermediaries could apply; 22 awards totaling $81,701,389 went to organizations in 18 states, and 15 of the 22 went to state agencies. State grantees must partner with at least one local reentry organization, so a local training nonprofit's best move is to contact its state workforce agency about that partner role.

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6. DOL WORC Round 7: Training Grants for Appalachian, Delta, and Northern Border Communities

Best for: Nonprofits, colleges, and workforce boards training workers in the Appalachian, Delta, or Northern Border regions.

According to the WORC Round 7 listing (FOA-ETA-26-23) (opens in a new tab), DOL offered $49.2 million for awards of $2 million to $8 million, with about 15 awards expected. It's run with three regional commissions, including the Delta Regional Authority, and targets employers in high-growth industries in those regions. Nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status were eligible, along with workforce boards, colleges, tribes, and local governments. The notice posted June 10, 2026 and closed July 23, 2026.

WORC is the one recent DOL competition where a local training nonprofit could apply directly as the lead. The $2 million floor is the catch: an organization that has never managed a seven-figure federal grant should plan to apply as part of a partnership with a workforce board or college that has. If you're outside the WORC regions, it's a bad fit; skip it.

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7. SNAP E&T 50/50 and AmeriCorps: Two Non-DOL Routes Training Nonprofits Underuse

SNAP Employment and Training (USDA). Under 7 CFR 273.7(d) (opens in a new tab), each state gets a 100% federal E&T grant with no match, and the federal government pays 50% of the state's other approved E&T administrative costs. That 50% share is the basis for "third-party partner" or "50/50" contracts: a nonprofit spends non-federal money, such as foundation grants or private donations, serving SNAP participants in approved training, the state claims the federal half, and the state passes it to the nonprofit under its contract. The same regulation lets nonprofits providing workforce services and approved WIOA training providers run "workforce partnerships" that count toward SNAP work requirements.

The honest friction: 50/50 money is reimbursement, not an advance. You need non-federal dollars to spend first, a contract with your state SNAP agency (the state E&T plan sets which components it'll pay for), and participant-level records showing each cost served an eligible SNAP recipient. A red flag is planning to use another federal grant as the non-federal share; under the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200.306), federal funds generally can't count toward another federal program's cost share. Ask your state SNAP agency whether it's adding third-party partners for the next federal fiscal year, since states submit E&T plans annually.

AmeriCorps State and National. According to the FY2027 AmeriCorps State and National listing (opens in a new tab), posted August 28, 2026, applications are due January 13, 2027, and nonprofits are eligible. Economic opportunity is one of the program's funding categories, so a job training program can propose AmeriCorps members as job coaches, tutors for credential exams, or employer outreach staff. Most nonprofits apply through their state service commission, which often sets an earlier deadline. See the AmeriCorps State and National 2026 guide for match and cost-per-member rules.

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8. Policy Changes in 2025-2026 That Affect Job Training Funding

The WIOA block grant proposal didn't pass for FY2026. DOL's FY2026 budget request for ETA (opens in a new tab) proposed folding 11 programs, including WIOA Adult, Youth, and Dislocated Worker, YouthBuild, Reentry Employment Opportunities, and Apprenticeship, into a single $2,965,905,000 "Make America Skilled Again" grant to states and localities. Congress didn't adopt it. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, enacted February 3, 2026, funded WIOA Youth ($948,130,000), Adult ($875,649,000), and Dislocated Worker ($1,396,412,000) as separate programs, according to the Federal Register allotment notice, and YouthBuild ran its own competition. Watch for the proposal to return in later budget requests.

Job Corps. DOL announced a pause of contractor-operated Job Corps centers on May 29, 2025, and its FY2026 budget request sought $90 million for "programmatic closure activities." Federal courts blocked the closures in 2025. According to Public Citizen, which represented students in Cabrera v. Department of Labor in federal court in Washington, D.C., DOL agreed in an August 10, 2026 settlement to rescind the termination notices and the pause for all 99 contractor-operated centers. If you place graduates into or recruit from a Job Corps center, those partnerships can continue, but treat Job Corps funding as politically uncertain from year to year.

H-1B skills training. According to DOL's H-1B skills training page (opens in a new tab), no H-1B funding opportunity is open, and the current H-1B fee-funded vehicle is the Industry-Driven Skills Training Fund, which awarded about $86 million to 14 states in September 2025. That money goes to state workforce agencies, which work with employers on training, so training nonprofits reach it through their state.

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What the Federal Job Training Funding System Doesn't Tell You

Of the 9 routes in the summary table, 6 run through a state, a local board, a college consortium, or an intermediary before money reaches a local training program. DOL's 2026 rounds pushed further in that direction: RESTART went mostly to state agencies, Pay for Performance went to five intermediaries, and SCC Round 6 limited membership to colleges. The organizations that did best in 2026 weren't the ones writing the most federal applications. They were the ones already inside those state and regional partnerships when the money landed.

That changes how a training nonprofit should spend grant-writing time:

• First route: get on the Eligible Training Provider list and onto your local board's youth and adult provider bid lists. That's recurring money with no national competition.
• Second: apply directly only where local nonprofits win, which in 2026 meant YouthBuild, the Second Chance Act, and WORC in eligible regions.
• Third: for closed or state-routed programs, ask the state or college grantee for a partner role now, while they're hiring and setting up referral pipelines.

Competitive grants also end. A 36-month Second Chance Act award or a YouthBuild grant running through October 2028 is investment capital, not operating support. Programs that use the grant period to build ETP enrollment, SNAP E&T contracts, and employer-paid training are the ones still operating when the grant ends.

The Perkins base under community colleges: According to ED's Perkins state allocations page (opens in a new tab), Congress appropriates about $1.4 billion a year in Perkins V Title I state grants, and Perkins V requires states to pass at least 85% to local recipients such as school districts, area career and technical centers, and community colleges. Standalone nonprofits generally aren't eligible. That base funding is why colleges are steady partners: you're adding recruitment, support services, and employer links to programs Perkins already pays for, not replacing them.

To find current job training grants, including state and foundation programs not covered here, search the Grantsights grant database. For the broader federal workforce picture, see best grants for workforce development nonprofits, the WIOA grants guide for 2026, and grants for workforce training.

Related Guides

• Grants for Job Training Programs
• Grants for Workforce Training
• WIOA Grants in 2026
• Best Grants for Youth Development Nonprofits 2026

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Sources

• PY2026 WIOA Title I allotments, Federal Register, April 28, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
• DOL ETA current grant funding opportunities (opens in a new tab)
• DOL 2025 YouthBuild Grant Awards (updated September 2026) (opens in a new tab)
• DOL RESTART fact sheet (opens in a new tab).pdf)
• SCC Round 6 notice, FOA-ETA-26-40 (opens in a new tab)
• DOL Strengthening Community Colleges page (opens in a new tab)
• WORC Round 7 listing, FOA-ETA-26-23 (opens in a new tab)
• BJA FY2026 Second Chance Act Improving Reentry Education and Employment Outcomes notice (opens in a new tab)
• 7 CFR 273.7, SNAP work provisions and E&T funding (opens in a new tab)
• FY2027 AmeriCorps State and National listing (opens in a new tab)
• DOL FY2026 Budget in Brief, ETA (opens in a new tab)
• DOL ABA Round 2 page (opens in a new tab)
• DOL TEGL 08-25 (SAEF Round 4) (opens in a new tab)
• DOL H-1B skills training grants (opens in a new tab)
• Maryland Department of Labor, ABA Round 2 awards (August 20, 2024) (opens in a new tab)
• ED OCTAE Perkins state allocations (opens in a new tab)
• Associated Builders and Contractors, DOL Pay for Performance awards (July 8, 2026) (opens in a new tab)
• Public Citizen, Job Corps settlement (August 10, 2026) (opens in a new tab)
• USAspending.gov award search (opens in a new tab) (assistance listings 17.270 and 17.274, queried October 17, 2026)