Lowe’s announced a new partnership on Tuesday with dozens of companies that aims to address America’s shortage of skilled workers by helping to train and develop 1 million tradespeople over the next decade.
The Lowe’s Foundation is partnering with Nvidia, General Motors, AT&T, Bank of America and more through the Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition, which aims to train and certify 1 million skilled tradespeople by 2035. The cross-sector coalition – billed as the nation’s largest – includes more than 75 businesses, educators, workforce organizations and industry leaders.
Janice Dupré, executive vice president of human resources and chair of the Lowe’s Foundation, told FOX Business that Lowe’s first launched an initiative four years ago that aimed to train 250,000 workers for roles in skilled trades that it was clear that the “problem is so much bigger.”
She noted that the U.S. economy is facing a shortage of 2 million workers in the skilled trades, which is having an estimated impact of $1 trillion per year.
“No one entity can solve this. The Lowe’s Foundation is uniquely positioned because of our success and experience that we’ve had over the nearly four years,” Dupré said. “I believe collectively, with all these wonderful partners coming together, we’re going to solve this for the country.”
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Dupré said that the flow of new workers into the industry has lagged as younger, working-age adults increasingly opted to pursue college degrees rather than enter skilled trades in recent decades. As a result, “There’s no workforce waiting in the wings for us to fill these jobs that we so desperately need in this country.”
“The skilled trades are continuing to be depleted because for every five people that retire in the skilled trades, only two people are getting introduced into the profession,” Dupré said. “It’s just eroded over time where students have been encouraged to go get their college degree, and no one’s taking over the family business.”
“These are the people that build the homes that we all live in. They restore communities when a disaster has happened, and then they support the infrastructure that our economy and our country so desperately needs right now,” she added.
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Dupré noted that partnerships training skilled tradespeople can offer a pathway to in-demand, higher-paying work that can be completed in less time and with less debt than careers that require a college degree.
“When you look at a lot of these skilled trades programs, some of them can take 90 days of training and certification. Some of them that are more in-depth could take up to six months. Very low-cost models are what we have seen in our partnerships that we have that we’re funding,” she explained.
“These are careers you can get into with very low debt. But when you look at master plumbers and electricians, these folks are making six-figures,” Dupré added. “These are not low-paying jobs, these are high-demand jobs.”
BILL GATES OUTLINES THE STAKES OF THE AI ERA: ‘GREATEST EQUALIZER… OR WORST SOURCE OF INJUSTICE’
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | LOWE’S COMPANIES INC. | 204.70 | -3.35 | -1.61% |
| NVDA | NVIDIA CORP. | 220.78 | +3.23 | +1.48% |
| GM | GENERAL MOTORS CO. | 86.32 | +0.05 | +0.06% |
| BAC | BANK OF AMERICA CORP. | 61.94 | -0.38 | -0.61% |
| T | AT&T INC. | 25.89 | -0.12 | -0.46% |
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has drawn new attention to the skilled trades as hands-on roles can be less sensitive to automation. Dupré noted that while “AI is going to transform work no matter what it touches – skilled trades, corporate jobs, and it’s going to have an impact, so we’re all going to have to figure out a brand new way of working.”
“But what’s uniquely beneficial in the skilled trades is that it remains hands-on,” she said, noting that plumbers, electricians and construction workers have to physically perform that work.
Dupré added that AI buildout itself is spurring demand for skilled trades workers amid the need for data centers and other infrastructure to power it. Furthermore, AI tools can serve skilled trades workers by helping them research issues they may encounter in the course of their work.
“We don’t think of AI as necessarily replacing, we think AI can actually enhance the skilled trades because it’ll make it easier for people to get hands-on experience, but also being able to leverage AI to give them quicker solutions,” she said, calling the skilled trades a “people business.”
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