Building Youth Workforce Skills Act

The Building Youth Workforce Skills Act (HR 5649) expands access to workforce training for young people by allowing local areas to use existing funds from the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to cover training costs through individual training accounts. It directly affects in-school youth (ages 16-21) and out-of-school youth by enabling them to receive the same training support previously available only to adults and dislocated workers. The key mechanism is amending WIOA to permit these accounts to pay for approved training services provided by eligible training providers. This change streamlines access to job skills training without creating new funding streams.