New Jersey’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development has awarded nearly 7.5 million dollars across two distinct workforce training initiatives, one aimed at opening construction career pathways for women and minority residents, the other focused on building digital literacy among low-income residents receiving state assistance. Together, the grants reflect a broader state strategy of funding community based organizations directly, rather than running training programs out of Trenton, to connect residents with the specific, in demand skills employers across the state are actively looking for.

Four Organizations, One Goal: Getting Women and Minorities Into the Trades

The construction focused funding, awarded through the second fiscal year 2026 round of the New Jersey Builders Utilization Initiative for Labor Diversity’s Women and Minorities in Construction Trades program, went to four organizations working directly to expand construction career access across the state.

The program, administered through NJDOL’s Office of Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning, provides pre-apprenticeship training, wraparound support services, and job placement assistance specifically designed to reduce the financial and systemic barriers that have historically limited diversity across the building and construction trades. Acting Labor Commissioner Kevin Jarvis framed the investment plainly, saying the state’s construction industry is strongest when it actually reflects the communities it serves. Todd Pisani, director of the Rutgers Employment Success Program, pointed to the industry pressure driving the urgency behind the funding, noting that as experienced tradespeople retire and demand for skilled workers keeps climbing, the challenge is not just filling immediate vacancies but convincing a new generation to see the trades as a genuine career of purpose and long term stability.

Since fiscal year 2019, NJDOL has invested more than 24.5 million dollars through NJBUILD, training more than 2,500 women and minority New Jersey residents for careers across the building and construction trades, a track record this latest funding round extends directly.

Teaching Digital Skills to Residents Building Toward Independence

The second, larger piece of this funding round, 6 million dollars, targets an entirely different skill gap. Launched in 2025, the state’s digital literacy training grant funds community based organizations to deliver digital skills training specifically to Work First New Jersey recipients, the state’s primary assistance program for eligible low-income residents working to prepare for and find employment. Beyond building baseline technology skills, the program lets participants earn industry recognized certifications and connects them directly with employers seeking exactly those qualifications.

This second funding round will support six organizations, Atlantic Cape Community College, Inspire U, the Long Beach Island Community Center, Mercer Med Tech, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and the Workforce Development Board of Northwest New Jersey, each receiving up to 1 million dollars to integrate digital skills training into their existing workforce programs between July 2026 and January 2028.

Early results from the program’s first round offer a genuine, measurable sense of what that investment can produce. Of the participants who completed the first round of training, 425 individuals received digital skills instruction, 181 went on to earn industry specific certifications and credentials, and 66 secured unsubsidized employment as a direct result of the initiative. Jarvis described the underlying philosophy behind the investment in personal terms, saying digital literacy is ultimately about opening doors to careers that let residents better care for their families and meaningfully contribute to their communities and the state as a whole.

Two Different Skill Gaps, One Shared Strategy

Taken together, the two grant programs reflect a consistent approach running through the state’s broader workforce development strategy, funding trusted, community rooted organizations to deliver targeted training directly to the specific populations who have historically faced the steepest barriers to entering high demand fields, whether that barrier is a lack of digital fluency or the financial and systemic hurdles that have long limited diversity in the skilled trades. With more than 30 million dollars now committed across NJBUILD and the digital literacy initiative combined, and documented outcomes already showing real residents moving into real jobs, the state appears to be treating workforce training less as a one time grant cycle than as a sustained, multi year investment in closing New Jersey’s specific labor gaps from the ground up.