diff --git a/docs/en/models/yolo-world.md b/docs/en/models/yolo-world.md
index 2945f4aed1..ec1a25e812 100644
--- a/docs/en/models/yolo-world.md
+++ b/docs/en/models/yolo-world.md
@@ -321,6 +321,7 @@ This approach provides a powerful means of customizing state-of-the-art [object
         from ultralytics import YOLOWorld
         from ultralytics.models.yolo.world.train_world import WorldTrainerFromScratch
 
+        # Option 1: Use Python dictionary
         data = dict(
             train=dict(
                 yolo_data=["Objects365.yaml"],
@@ -337,8 +338,27 @@ This approach provides a powerful means of customizing state-of-the-art [object
             ),
             val=dict(yolo_data=["lvis.yaml"]),
         )
+
+        # Option 2: Use YAML file (yolo_world_data.yaml)
+        # train:
+        #   yolo_data:
+        #     - Objects365.yaml
+        #   grounding_data:
+        #     - img_path: flickr/full_images/
+        #       json_file: flickr/annotations/final_flickr_separateGT_train_segm.json
+        #     - img_path: mixed_grounding/gqa/images
+        #       json_file: mixed_grounding/annotations/final_mixed_train_no_coco_segm.json
+        # val:
+        #   yolo_data:
+        #     - lvis.yaml
+
         model = YOLOWorld("yolov8s-worldv2.yaml")
-        model.train(data=data, batch=128, epochs=100, trainer=WorldTrainerFromScratch)
+        model.train(
+            data=data,  # or data="yolo_world_data.yaml" if using YAML file
+            batch=128,
+            epochs=100,
+            trainer=WorldTrainerFromScratch,
+        )
         ```
 
 ## Citations and Acknowledgments
diff --git a/docs/en/models/yoloe.md b/docs/en/models/yoloe.md
index 3f355aa70c..d0da2b1ed0 100644
--- a/docs/en/models/yoloe.md
+++ b/docs/en/models/yoloe.md
@@ -541,6 +541,7 @@ The export process is similar to other YOLO models, with the added flexibility o
         from ultralytics import YOLOE
         from ultralytics.models.yolo.yoloe import YOLOESegTrainerFromScratch
 
+        # Option 1: Use Python dictionary
         data = dict(
             train=dict(
                 yolo_data=["Objects365.yaml"],
@@ -558,9 +559,22 @@ The export process is similar to other YOLO models, with the added flexibility o
             val=dict(yolo_data=["lvis.yaml"]),
         )
 
+        # Option 2: Use YAML file (yoloe_data.yaml)
+        # train:
+        #   yolo_data:
+        #     - Objects365.yaml
+        #   grounding_data:
+        #     - img_path: flickr/full_images/
+        #       json_file: flickr/annotations/final_flickr_separateGT_train_segm.json
+        #     - img_path: mixed_grounding/gqa/images
+        #       json_file: mixed_grounding/annotations/final_mixed_train_no_coco_segm.json
+        # val:
+        #   yolo_data:
+        #     - lvis.yaml
+
         model = YOLOE("yoloe-26l-seg.yaml")
         model.train(
-            data=data,
+            data=data,  # or data="yoloe_data.yaml" if using YAML file
             batch=128,
             epochs=30,
             close_mosaic=2,
diff --git a/tests/test_python.py b/tests/test_python.py
index 8acdb2daf4..d42a751b2d 100644
--- a/tests/test_python.py
+++ b/tests/test_python.py
@@ -697,11 +697,11 @@ def test_yolo_world():
     checks.IS_PYTHON_3_8 and LINUX and ARM64,
     reason="YOLOE with CLIP is not supported in Python 3.8 and aarch64 Linux",
 )
-def test_yoloe():
+def test_yoloe(tmp_path):
     """Test YOLOE models with MobileClip support."""
     # Predict
     # text-prompts
-    model = YOLO(WEIGHTS_DIR / "yoloe-11s-seg.pt")
+    model = YOLO(WEIGHTS_DIR / "yoloe-26s-seg.pt")
     names = ["person", "bus"]
     model.set_classes(names, model.get_text_pe(names))
     model(SOURCE, conf=0.01)
@@ -721,7 +721,7 @@ def test_yoloe():
     )
 
     # Val
-    model = YOLOE(WEIGHTS_DIR / "yoloe-11s-seg.pt")
+    model = YOLOE(WEIGHTS_DIR / "yoloe-26s-seg.pt")
     # text prompts
     model.val(data="coco128-seg.yaml", imgsz=32)
     # visual prompts
@@ -730,7 +730,7 @@ def test_yoloe():
     # Train, fine-tune
     from ultralytics.models.yolo.yoloe import YOLOEPESegTrainer, YOLOESegTrainerFromScratch
 
-    model = YOLOE("yoloe-11s-seg.pt")
+    model = YOLOE("yoloe-26s-seg.pt")
     model.train(
         data="coco128-seg.yaml",
         epochs=1,
@@ -739,21 +739,26 @@ def test_yoloe():
         imgsz=32,
     )
     # Train, from scratch
-    model = YOLOE("yoloe-11s-seg.yaml")
-    model.train(
-        data=dict(train=dict(yolo_data=["coco128-seg.yaml"]), val=dict(yolo_data=["coco128-seg.yaml"])),
-        epochs=1,
-        close_mosaic=1,
-        trainer=YOLOESegTrainerFromScratch,
-        imgsz=32,
-    )
+    model = YOLOE("yoloe-26s-seg.yaml")
+
+    data_dict = dict(train=dict(yolo_data=["coco128-seg.yaml"]), val=dict(yolo_data=["coco128-seg.yaml"]))
+    data_yaml = tmp_path / "yoloe-data.yaml"
+    YAML.save(data=data_dict, file=data_yaml)
+    for data in {data_dict, data_yaml}:
+        model.train(
+            data=data,
+            epochs=1,
+            close_mosaic=1,
+            trainer=YOLOESegTrainerFromScratch,
+            imgsz=32,
+        )
 
     # prompt-free
     # predict
-    model = YOLOE(WEIGHTS_DIR / "yoloe-11s-seg-pf.pt")
+    model = YOLOE(WEIGHTS_DIR / "yoloe-26s-seg-pf.pt")
     model.predict(SOURCE)
     # val
-    model = YOLOE("yoloe-11s-seg.pt")  # or select yoloe-m/l-seg.pt for different sizes
+    model = YOLOE("yoloe-26s-seg.pt")  # or select yoloe-m/l-seg.pt for different sizes
     model.val(data="coco128-seg.yaml", imgsz=32)
 
 
diff --git a/ultralytics/models/yolo/world/train_world.py b/ultralytics/models/yolo/world/train_world.py
index e02c0fec50..44c701e830 100644
--- a/ultralytics/models/yolo/world/train_world.py
+++ b/ultralytics/models/yolo/world/train_world.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 # Ultralytics 🚀 AGPL-3.0 License - https://ultralytics.com/license
+from __future__ import annotations
 
 from pathlib import Path
 
@@ -6,6 +7,7 @@ from ultralytics.data import YOLOConcatDataset, build_grounding, build_yolo_data
 from ultralytics.data.utils import check_det_dataset
 from ultralytics.models.yolo.world import WorldTrainer
 from ultralytics.utils import DATASETS_DIR, DEFAULT_CFG, LOGGER
+from ultralytics.utils.checks import check_file
 from ultralytics.utils.torch_utils import unwrap_model
 
 
@@ -100,6 +102,23 @@ class WorldTrainerFromScratch(WorldTrainer):
         self.set_text_embeddings(datasets, batch)  # cache text embeddings to accelerate training
         return YOLOConcatDataset(datasets) if len(datasets) > 1 else datasets[0]
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def check_data_config(data: dict | str) -> dict:
+        """Check and load the data configuration from a YAML file or dictionary.
+
+        Args:
+            data (dict | str): Data configuration as a dictionary or path to a YAML file.
+
+        Returns:
+            (dict): Data configuration dictionary loaded from YAML file or passed directly.
+        """
+        # If string, load from YAML file
+        if isinstance(data, str):
+            from ultralytics.utils import YAML
+
+            return YAML.load(check_file(data))
+        return data
+
     def get_dataset(self):
         """Get train and validation paths from data dictionary.
 
@@ -114,7 +133,7 @@ class WorldTrainerFromScratch(WorldTrainer):
             AssertionError: If train or validation datasets are not found, or if validation has multiple datasets.
         """
         final_data = {}
-        data_yaml = self.args.data
+        self.args.data = data_yaml = self.check_data_config(self.args.data)
         assert data_yaml.get("train", False), "train dataset not found"  # object365.yaml
         assert data_yaml.get("val", False), "validation dataset not found"  # lvis.yaml
         data = {k: [check_det_dataset(d) for d in v.get("yolo_data", [])] for k, v in data_yaml.items()}