WIOA, Perkins, Pell, SAEF, Title II, USDOL apprenticeship grants. The dollars to train your next nurse, your next teacher, your next medical assistant already exist. They're just siloed across agencies, each with its own rules. Craft maps the stack and runs the program that holds together at audit.
The dollars to grow your region's workforce already exist. They're just siloed across WIOA, Perkins, SAEF, Title II, and Workforce Pell — each with its own eligibility rules, allowable costs, and reporting calendar. Braiding them is how a rural hospital or district stretches one stream into a fully paid pathway. Running the program that comes out the other side is the work that proves the dollars hit.
That's the gap Craft was built to fill.
Braided funding means drawing on multiple federal, state, local, and private streams at once to fully fund a workforce pathway. Each stream keeps its own rules. Together, they cover the parts of an earn-and-learn program — RTI, OJT wages, supportive services, credentialing — that no single stream covers alone.
Done right, it turns a six-figure program into a $0-to-low-net line item for the employer, with the workforce board's WIOA contribution doing more work than it could alone.
Eight funding sources we map and braid for rural healthcare and education employers.
WIOA
National scale
Adult, youth, and dislocated worker training; OJT wage reimbursement; supportive services.
Perkins / CTE
National scale
CTE curriculum, instructors, and workforce-board coordination at HS and college.
Pell / Workforce Pell
Up to, per student
Tuition, fees, and books at Title IV institutions; emerging short-term Pell for approved pathways.
USDOL RA Grants
National scale
Program startup, apprentice support, sponsor infrastructure.
SAEF
State apprenticeship expansion
RTI, sponsor infrastructure, wage progression.
State IWT
Incumbent worker training
Incumbent upskilling; OJT wage reimbursement.
Title II
Educator pipeline
Educator preparation and recruitment for high-need districts.
Dual Enrollment
K–12 / college credit
High school credit for college courses via K–12/college MOUs.
Braiding works because different streams cover different stages of the same program.
A 14-apprentice MA pathway ran an 18-week program at $0 net to the employer after state IWT and WIOA OJT wage reimbursement cleared. Craft Services mapped the stack — WIOA OJT for wages, Perkins reserve for RTI, state IWT for incumbent upskilling, and a local philanthropic match for supportive services. Craft Connect ran the pathway and produced the WIOA, Perkins, and RAPIDS exports at renewal.
A six-district consortium ran a para-to-licensed-teacher pathway across three cohorts with $0 tuition cost to the apprentice. Craft Services braided Title II-A, a state Grow-Your-Own grant, Perkins V for the para certificate stage, and a regional foundation match for childcare during student-teaching. Craft Connect tracked hours and produced ESSA Tier IV reporting.
Composite illustrations. Numbers reflect typical outcomes Craft has produced across rural engagements.
Our funding strategy team works site by site and region by region to align the streams accessible in your geography, document the use of funds, and produce the application, drawdown, and renewal materials each funder requires. Proven in rural healthcare and rural education across multiple states.
One platform for the full apprenticeship lifecycle. Learners log on-the-job hours against the work-process schedule. Mentors approve in a queue. Competencies roll up at registered-apprenticeship standard. One data model produces the WIOA, Perkins, RAPIDS, and Workforce Pell exports your reporting cycle accepts — so the evidence a funder asks for is already there.
The combination is the point. Funding without an operational back office stalls at audit. Tracking software without funding strategy never pencils out for the employer. Craft does both, on one platform, for one fee — most rural programs run no- to low-cost to the employer when the stack lines up.
You already know the roles you need to fill. Bring us the program — even one in early design. Our funding strategy team identifies the streams that stack in your state, writes the applications, manages the draws, and reconciles against compliance every quarter. You get a funded program; we own the paperwork.
If you have a program running on spreadsheets and email threads, Craft Connect replaces both. Your apprentices log hours, your mentors review in a queue, and your reporting cycle starts with an export instead of a scramble. MSGs, credentials, and placements land in a record that holds up to audit and renewal.
Tell us the roles you're trying to fill, the partners already at the table — community colleges, state agencies, workforce boards, philanthropic funders — and we'll come back with a draft pathway, the streams that stack in your region, and a first-90-days plan. The work product is yours; the orchestration is ours.
If you already know which grant you need to apply for — USDOL RA, SAEF, ESSA Tier IV, an EPP partnership, a state Grow-Your-Own RFP — and you need someone to actually write it, our grant-support team can step in mid-application. We've supported live proposals across rural healthcare and rural education in multiple states.
Bring us the RFP. Tell us the deadline. We'll come back with a scope and a price.
30 minutes. We'll talk through your roles, your geography, and which streams stack in your state. If we're the right fit, we'll come back with a draft braid and a first-90-days plan. If not, we'll point you to who is.