Meta funds $115 million trades program for data center jobs

Meta is putting $115 million into a free, five-week trades academy that promises a job offer before training starts, a package designed to pull new workers into the same hands-on labor market that feeds Home Depot’s Pro desks, loading zones and contractor conversations. The company is selling America’s Workforce Academy as a way to fast-track people into full-time jobs with general contractors on its data center buildout, not as a classroom exercise.

The first pilots are set for Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio and Texas. Qualified participants can get scholarships, travel, housing and stipends for living expenses, and graduates leave with the National Center for Construction Education and Research credential plus an America’s Workforce Certificate. Meta and Associated Builders and Contractors say the program is aimed at people with no prior trade experience, including veterans and career changers. Dina Powell McCormick framed the effort as part of a bigger labor shift, saying, “The AI revolution is bringing change but also historic opportunities.”

That kind of offer lands in a very different place for Home Depot associates, but the comparison is hard to miss. Home Depot says it offers tuition reimbursement, mentorship, development tools and training, and its career pages say 90 percent of store leaders began in hourly roles. The company also points to role-based ladders such as Operations Assistant Store Manager in Training, where associates get hands-on experience, mentorship and leadership development while learning store operations from the sales floor to receiving, order fulfillment and the back office. Meta is buying a separate job pipeline; Home Depot is asking workers to climb one inside the company.

The larger labor signal is that skilled trades are becoming a corporate strategy, not just an industry slogan. ABC says it expects the academy to train thousands of people over time, while Meta and CBRE have said Meta has 27 data centers under construction or operating in the U.S. and more in planning, with those projects supporting more than 30,000 skilled trade jobs and 5,000 operational jobs since 2010. Meta’s earlier LevelUp fiber technician program drew 35,000 applications in its first seven days, and one Texas data center is projected to need more than 1,800 workers at peak construction but only about 100 once operational. For Home Depot teams, that means more customers coming through the aisles with training, credentialing and installation work in mind, and a tighter competition for workers who can move from stocking shelves to wiring systems, running conduit or supporting the next wave of data center buildout.