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As AI shakes up white-collar work, skilled trades are starting to look like the smarter bet for steady, high-paying work \u2014 and Lowe\u2019s is leaning into that future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The home improvement company recently told Fortune<\/a> that its foundation plans to invest $250 million over the next decade to train 250,000 skilled trades professionals in the U.S. in fields such as plumbing, carpentry and electrical work. The money flows through the Lowe\u2019s Foundation into community colleges and nonprofits, funding tuition-free training, credentials and modern equipment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company had previously committed more than $50 million to nonprofits and community college programs, but CEO Marvin Ellison said that evolving workforce dynamics have made higher investments in U.S. skilled-trade education even more critical and timely.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re a company that believes strongly in the future of AI, but in a world where administrative and analytical occupations are going to be increasingly dominated with the acceleration of AI, we think the skilled trades initiative is going to be even more important here in the near future,\u201d Ellison said.<\/p>\n He pointed out that AI has its limits \u2014 it can code, draft emails and crunch numbers, but it can\u2019t show up to your door to fix a leaky pipe.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs powerful as AI will become, AI can\u2019t climb a ladder to change the batteries in your smoke detector,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cIt can\u2019t change your furnace filter; it can\u2019t clean your dryer vent; it can\u2019t repair a hole on your roof.\u201d<\/p>\n The urgency for skilled trades is real; the U.S. is facing a serious labor shortage. The Associated Builders and Contractors projects<\/a> that the U.S. will need about 350,000 more construction workers just to meet demand in 2026, and that shortfall could jump to 456,000 by 2027. Electricians<\/a>, plumbers<\/a> and carpenters<\/a> are similarly all in short supply. Even though pay is climbing<\/a>, the pipeline of new talent isn\u2019t keeping up with demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Ellison, the changing workforce isn\u2019t just a business issue \u2014 it\u2019s personal. As he told Fortune, he grew up in Brownsville, Tennessee, a small town northeast of Memphis, where the message was always the same: go to college if you want to achieve the American dream. Yet he noted that in his community, some of the most admired individuals were tradespeople who had built successful businesses of their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ellison followed the conventional wisdom, earning a business degree from the University of Memphis and an MBA from Emory University. His brother chose a different path, going to vocational school and building a career as a welder. Ellison told Fortune that for too long, jobs like his brother\u2019s have been seen as second-tier compared to white-collar careers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s not that one option is better or worse; it\u2019s all about that there are different paths to trying to obtain prosperity, and we all, me included, need to do a better job of presenting skilled trades as rewarding, viable careers, not just backup plans,\u201d he told the outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trades are a means to \u201ccreate meaningful wealth\u201d and \u201cearn a very dignified living\u201d with \u201ca lot less debt,\u201d Ellison explained. According to the Education Data Initiative<\/a>, the average cost to attend a four-year college is $38,270 per year, compared to the average cost of a trade school education, which works out to about $33,000 total<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t succumb to peer pressure that one career is better, more impressive, or more valuable than another,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cChoose your career path, not from pressure around what you think is the most valuable career or most prestigious, but choose it based on your natural interest and your skill set.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n As AI shakes up white-collar work, skilled trades are starting to look like the smarter bet for steady, high-paying work \u2014 and Lowe\u2019s is leaning into that future.\u00a0<\/p>\nDifferent paths to achieve the American dream<\/h2>\n
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