As the construction industry faces an ongoing labor shortage, some organizations are coming up with creative solutions to help bolster careers in the skilled trades. The Lowe’s Foundation recently announced the launch of the Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition, which aims to train one million skilled trades workers by 2035.

The national alliance is backed by more than 75 educators, businesses, workforce organizations, industry vendors, and stakeholders across the construction industry, including companies such as NVIDIA, AT&T, Bank of America, Carrier, General Motors, DEWALT, and Duke Energy, among others.

The Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition is just one way the Lowe’s Foundation is working to improve the skilled trades labor shortage, however. In 2023, the organization launched its Gable Grants program which has since been used to enhance skilled trades education across 73 community colleges and nonprofits in 30 states. Outcomes of the program led the foundation to recently expand its mission to train and develop 250,000 tradespeople by 2035 through a $250 million investment.

“The next industrial revolution won’t be built by algorithms alone. It will be built by the millions of skilled trade professionals who power, connect and move this country forward,” said Marvin Ellison, Lowe’s chairman and CEO. “For nearly four years, our foundation’s sole focus has been helping thousands of people enter the skilled trades by investing in America’s most innovative workforce training programs. Today through this coalition, we are answering the call from hundreds of existing partners to lead an even larger unified national effort that will redefine what’s possible when leaders from different sectors rally behind a common purpose.”