The Home Depot Foundation announced it will commit $50 million to train 20,000 tradespeople over the next decade.
The commitment is to address the growing trade labor shortage in the U.S., according to the Foundation.
The funds will go toward a pre-apprenticeship certification program the Foundation launched in partnership with the Home Builders Institute in 2017 for military members transitioning out of the service.
“We want to bring shop class back, from coast-to-coast,” The Home Depot Foundation Executive Director Shannon Gerber said in a statement.
The Foundation also announced it would establish a trades training partnership with the Construction Education Foundation of Georgia (CEFG) specifically for residents of Atlanta’s Westside community.
The ratio of construction job openings to hirings is at its highest level since 2007, with nearly 160,000 unfilled construction positions currently in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
