Google joins skilled trades training wave, commits $50 million 

Google on Thursday announced that it will invest $50 million to help train over 300,000 skilled trades workers across more than 20 states.

What’s happening: The funding, committed by the company’s philanthropic arm, “will go directly to the training experts who build these programs from the ground up,” the announcement states. 

• “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 adds. 
• Google named the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association (SMACNA), the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA), and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) as partners in the initiative. 

The big picture: Earlier in the week, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Facebook-parent Meta committed a combined $205 million toward similar initiatives, bringing the total of skilled trades investments announced over the past 90 days to $555 million, as Homepros recently reported. Google’s pledge pushes that figure to over $600 million. 

What they’re saying: “No single entity can solve this American workforce shortage on its own,” Google wrote Thursday. “There needs to be engagement across industry, civil society, and government, so we can build modern on-the-job training and expand apprenticeships together.”