WSDOT grants aim to build transportation workforce

OLYMPIA – Nine organizations will receive grants from the Washington State Department of Transportation to help grow the state’s transportation workforce. 

The awardees all provide training, mentoring and job placement. The grants aim to help people in the state who don’t often get such opportunities. 

WSDOT’s Workforce Advancement and Vocational Education and the Pre-Apprenticeship Support Services grant programs help socially disadvantaged people. This includes young adults leaving foster care or the juvenile rehabilitation system. It also includes unhoused individuals.

The WAVE program, formerly known as the COMPASS program, is designed to build the workforce of Washington State Ferries. The PASS program focuses on the transportation-construction workforce. 

2025-2027 WAVE grant recipient and grant amount

• Youth Marine Foundation – $500,000

2025-2027 PASS grant recipients and grant amounts

• ANEW: Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Employment for Women – $500,000
• Career Path Services – $500,000
• Palmer Scholars – $575,000
• Edmonds College – $575,000
• Tulalip Tribes TERO Vocational Training Center (Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance) – $288,420
• Perry Technical Institute – $1,056,120
• Pacific Northwest Ironworkers Local #86 Apprenticeship Committee – $596,280
• Electrical Workers’ Minority Caucus – $60,445

Grant winners were chosen based on their plans for outreach, assessments, training, credentialing and support services. These services will help disadvantaged groups enter the transportation construction and maritime workforces.