The Home Depot Foundation—the nonprofit arm of The Home Depot—announced a new $6 million investment in skilled trades training and launched new strategic partnerships to address the vast amount of job openings across the construction industry.
“We’re expanding our current training programs and creating new avenues to steadily fill the country’s skilled labor gap with in-demand talent,” says Shannon Gerber, The Home Depot Foundation’s executive director. “Diversifying our approach with additional entrepreneurship and scholarship programs helps ensure we’re reaching more communities with free training opportunities and creating sustainable change for the industry.”
According to the foundation, the new million-dollar contribution will:
- Launch a new entrepreneurship program in the foundation’s Path to Pro platform that will provide free, skilled trades training and scholarships for more veterans, military families, high school students, and separating service members.
- Introduce an entrepreneurship program with Bunker Labs, designed to guide U.S. military veterans and military spouses through the process of establishing a successful business. During the eight-week virtual program, participants will gain industry-specific mentorship, learn about market segmentation, how to address specific customer profiles, and design a business plan for launch.
- Expand its Path to Pro scholarships with grants to SkillPointe Foundation, its partner since 2021, and through a new partnership with Folds of Honor. Military scholarships through the organization extend financial support to qualifying veterans and military family members entering or enrolled in accredited skilled trade schools.
- Extend its grant to longtime partner Home Builders Institute to broaden its Path to Pro high school and military programs. The two organizations will continue to provide no-cost PACT curriculum certification for more than 1,200 separating military members annually, 11th- and 12th-grade students, and Title 1 schools nationwide.
For more information and to find skilled trades resources available in English and Spanish, visit pathtopro.com.
