- America’s Workforce Academy is a $115 million meta-training plan to support construction functions
- Meta Knows America Will Need Hundreds of Thousands of Skilled Tradespeople
- Previous Level-Up fiber training program received 35,000 applicants in one week
Every time a hyperscaler announces a new data center project, there usually comes a follow-up announcement about upskilling in AI and community funding, but this time, Meta is taking citizen support a step further.
Under the company’s new America’s Workforce Academy (AWA), training for careers that support the broader data center boom will be supported in jobs such as construction and infrastructure.
Meta will use AWA to commit $115 million in funding in 2026, making it one of the largest private sector investments in business skills in the US.
Amid the current AI boom, hyperscalers are quickly realizing that providing workers with AI literacy skills alone is not enough, and they face limitations in how quickly they can expand their infrastructure.
Meta argued that America’s AI ambitions will require hundreds of thousands of additional professionals, including fiber technicians, welders, plumbers, electricians and more, and with such healthy investment, it’s proof that AI is evolving jobs rather than replacing them entirely.
“The US Workforce Academy is our commitment to developing that workforce with the same ambition and long-term thinking that we bring to technology itself,” explained Vice President of Data Centers Rachel Peterson.
Under the plan, workers will have access to free five-week courses with guaranteed employment opportunities in Meta’s data center projects. Baton Rouge, Houston, Indianapolis and Columbus will be the first regions to benefit from the plan.
But the benefits aren’t just tied to Meta: Since workers can earn National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) accreditation and a U.S. Workforce Certificate, the company says the skills acquired will be able to “travel with the worker across employers and industry sectors.”
This comes after the success of Meta’s Level-Up fiber installation training programme, which received 35,000 applications in the first week.
“Skilled workers electrified rural America, one pole at a time,” explained Meta President and Vice President Dina Powell McCormick. “Now a new generation will lay the foundation and lay the fiber that ensures American strength in this new era.”
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