Google to Invest $50 Million in Tradespeople Training & Outreach
Key Highlights
- Google’s $50 million in funding supports over 20 states, targeting 300,000-plus workers for skilled trades careers.
- Partnerships include labor unions, trade associations such as NECA and mobile training centers to reach diverse communities.
- Focus on electrical, manufacturing and infrastructure skills with an emphasis on AI integration for improved training and job placement.
Google recently announced that it’s expanding support for skilled trades to help prepare more than 300,000 American workers across more than 20 states. According to the Google post, “Through a $50-million commitment from Google.org, funding will go directly to the training experts who build these programs from the ground up. Their work will support 14 labor unions and four trade and contractor associations, ensuring workers have the state-of-the-art skills and accreditation to pursue a skilled trades career, no matter where they want to work.
“It also builds on funding Google has provided to help the electrical training ALLIANCE (etA) train tens of thousands of electrical workers and the Manufacturing Institute train tens of thousands of current and future manufacturing workers in essential AI skills.”
Formed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), the Electrical Training Alliance will assist local training programs by bringing additional resources directly to high-demand infrastructure hubs through an innovative mobile training center pilot.
The post said Google will also target potential workers that may be interested in become an electrical apprenticeships. “TradesFutures, an organization created by North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) and its industry partners, will increase access to union construction careers,” the post said. “They’ll do this by scaling placement from apprenticeship readiness programs into registered apprenticeships across the country and integrating AI operational tools to improve graduate placement.”