The state labor department announced Wednesday it awarded $7.9 million in the most recent round of grant funding to support apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs.

The two programs that received the funding include:

Growing Apprenticeship in Nontraditional Sectors

GAINS develops new and existing apprenticeship programs. It also creates Registered Apprenticeship programs in high-growth industries, with a focus on equality of opportunity, upward mobility and economic fairness. In this round, $5 million is awards went to 13 grantees. The program expects to place 1,018 apprentices in a slew of occupations.

Pre-Apprenticeship in Career Education

PACE was developed primarily to alleviate economic barriers that hinder upskilling. It does that through programs that provide job readiness, essential skills, occupation-specific training and more. In this round, eight awardees receive $2.9 million total. The funds will place 470 pre-apprentices in occupations ranging from home health care to massage therapy.

A full list of the awardees is available here.

New opportunities

“Receiving the Department of Labor PACE grant positively impacts our students, manufacturing partners, the college, and the communities we serve,” said Anthony Iacono, president of the County College of Morris, a grantee. “We are grateful to provide students with opportunities to be educated and trained in manufacturing, develop their resumes through apprenticeship programs, and be placed in jobs earning family sustaining wages.”

In a press release announcing the awards, the Murphy administration touted its investment of nearly $60 million in grant programs to create and develop work-based learning, pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship program across the Garden State. According to the Department of Labor & Workforce Development, that’s led to 678 new registered apprenticeship programs. The more than 100% increase has enabled the onboarding of 17,454 new apprentices.

Meanwhile, 8,611 active apprentices participate in 1,289 programs.

More details on the state’s Office of Apprenticeship is available here.