Key Takeaways
- Google is partnering with Hiring Our Heroes, Student Veterans of America and the Home Builders Institute to help 25,000 veterans enter skilled-trades careers.
- The effort targets a growing labor shortage in the trades, as AI-driven data-center construction and other infrastructure projects increase demand for workers.
- Google says hundreds of thousands of skilled-trades jobs are open nationwide, including roles such as master electrician, lead pipefitter and project manager.
Google’s latest workforce bet is helping veterans enter the skilled trades.
According to a recent report from Fox Business, Google is partnering with veteran groups to tackle the skilled trades worker shortage. The tech giant wants to help 25,000 veterans transitioning from service and military family members launch careers in the skilled trades. It’s unclear how much Google is investing in the initiative.
The effort will offer hands-on pre-apprenticeship training, career coaching and job-placement support for roles including electricians, pipefitters and project managers.
Google’s new workforce initiative will enlist the help of national organizations serving veterans, including Hiring Our Heroes, Student Veterans of America (SVA), and Home Builders Institute.
The program arrives as demand for trade workers accelerates alongside the buildout of AI data centers and related infrastructure. There is a nationwide skilled labor shortfall. A report from Bring Back the Trades revealed that there will be 1.4 million trade jobs unfilled by 2030.
Google data-center operations leader Tim Chadwick, a 21-year U.S. Navy veteran, said in a blog post that the initiative will make civilian-career transitions easier for veterans.
Chadwick, who oversees data-center operations across Ohio and Indiana, said “hundreds of thousands” of skilled-trades jobs remain open nationwide. He added that the initiative was a response to that workforce need. It is also a way to steer veterans and military families toward durable, “high-growth careers” like his own with long-term earning potential.
“But beyond just the growing need, these roles also make the most of the kinds of skills veterans and military families know better than anyone — skills like problem-solving under pressure, teamwork, and getting a job done right,” Chadwick stated.
Nationwide, the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that electricians earned a median annual wage of $63,190 in May 2025, while plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters earned a median of $63,800.
Project management specialists, a broader occupational category that can include construction and infrastructure project roles, earned a substantially higher median of $102,320 annually.
The commitment expands Google’s broader trades-training push. The company recently joined BlackRock, Ford and Carhartt in June to launch the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades, which aims to train one million workers by 2030, and previously committed funding for AI-enabled training tools and veteran-focused career certificates.
Cory Boatwright, president and CEO of SVA, told Fox Business that the organization’s collaboration with Google included 22 roundtable discussions across 11 states. They sought a clearer picture of what veterans want as they prepare for civilian life.
He said that the consistent message was that many are looking for more accessible routes into purposeful careers.
Boatwright said SVA is also taking a broader view of who qualifies as a “student veteran.” Rather than limiting the term to people pursuing traditional college degrees, the organization now includes veterans seeking any form of continued education, from professional certificates to training in the skilled trades.
“The student decides the path and what is meaningful to them,” he said.
Key Takeaways
- Google is partnering with Hiring Our Heroes, Student Veterans of America and the Home Builders Institute to help 25,000 veterans enter skilled-trades careers.
- The effort targets a growing labor shortage in the trades, as AI-driven data-center construction and other infrastructure projects increase demand for workers.
- Google says hundreds of thousands of skilled-trades jobs are open nationwide, including roles such as master electrician, lead pipefitter and project manager.
Google’s latest workforce bet is helping veterans enter the skilled trades.
According to a recent report from Fox Business, Google is partnering with veteran groups to tackle the skilled trades worker shortage. The tech giant wants to help 25,000 veterans transitioning from service and military family members launch careers in the skilled trades. It’s unclear how much Google is investing in the initiative.
The effort will offer hands-on pre-apprenticeship training, career coaching and job-placement support for roles including electricians, pipefitters and project managers.
