Governor Phil Murphy • Lt. Governor Tahesha Way

Esports Industry Career Exploration-Competitive

  

Division: Teaching and Learning Services

Office:  Career Readiness

View Published NGO Document (Microsoft Word)

 

Purpose: 

The Esports Industry Career Exploration grant program is intended to harness the popularity of esports to combat chronic absenteeism and the high rate of student suspensions, increase middle school student awareness of high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand career pathways within the esports industry, increase equity and access of special population groups to CTE programming and increase the engagement of special population students. This grant program will result new esports programming at the middle grades level. Esports programs must support career exploration activities and be aligned with secondary CTE programs of study in high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand fields in the esports industry.

The Esports Industry Career Exploration grant opportunity has the following goals:

  • Goal 1: Middle school students will learn about career opportunities in the esports industry aligning with CTE programming at the secondary level.
  • Goal 2: Middle school students involved in esports programming will have an increased attendance rate.
  • Goal 3: At the middle grades level, students of special populations identified by Perkins V legislation, particularly multilinguistic learners (MLLs), will become more engaged in the school community and develop social and soft skills needed in many career and technical fields.

The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) has established a single 14-month project period grant program. This grant program is open to New Jersey LEAs with a grade span of 5-8 and which act as a

sending district to a New Jersey comprehensive school district or County Vocational School District (CVSD) that has one or more approved CTE programs of study from the following identified programs:

o CIP Code 11.0201* - Computer Programmer;

o CIP Code 50.0411 - Game and Interactive Media Design;

o CIP Code 52.1401 - Marketing/Marketing Management, General;

o CIP Code 52.0907 - Meeting and Event Planning; and;

o CIP Code 10.0202 - Radio and Television Broadcasting.

Applicants may apply for up to $50,000. Based on the availability of FY25 state funding, this grant program will begin May 1, 2025 and will end on June 30, 2026.

 

 

 

Eligible Agencies: NJ LEAs grade 5-8 

Grant Type: Competitive

Number of Award(s) Anticipated: 5

Total Amount Available: $250,000

Application Due Date: 2/13/2025