State Awards $13.2 Million in Apprenticeship Grants at Chaffey InTech Center

Ahlias Calderon once felt unsure about his future, given his 1.8 GPA at Citrus Valley High School and low-income background.

Today, the 19-year-old Highland resident is making more than $30 per hour as a production technician for Anheuser-Busch in Jurupa Valley, with a goal of going into management. It’s all thanks to the California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship, a state-funded program connecting disadvantaged youths to high-paying careers.

“I came into this program after high school kind of lost and without a lot of structure,” he said. “What mattered to me was having a future I could go for, because I already saw the obstacles in front of me.”

State and local officials gathered April 30 at the Chaffey College InTech Center in Fontana to announce COYA’s awarding of $13.2 million to 25 schools and organizations – including $996,000 to Chaffey. Chaffey has already trained about 100 students through the program, said Chaffey College Superintendent/President Henry D. Shannon.

“We talk about education getting you to where you want to go, but you need to think about what’s going on today,” Shannon said. “You can’t wait two to three years to get a job while you’re trying to feed your family.”

The funding allows organizations to partner with employers to provide paid training to students.

“I had hundreds of hours of hands-on training, classroom training and it just really prepared me for the interviews and my career,” Calderon said. “This program helped me to understand everything when I walked into that plant.”

The state began awarding grants through COYA in 2023 to help young people between 16 and 24-years-old who are facing barriers to education and the workforce such as poverty, housing insecurity and connections to foster care or the juvenile justice system.

“We really want to go above and beyond as a community and as a state to be supporting these folks to find their foothold into a solid career,” said Adele Burns, chief of the California Division of Apprenticeship Standards.