For decades, young people were told to go to college, with white-collar jobs like coding cast as the future. But as AI disrupts that career path, skilled trades are emerging as a more resilient route to stable, well-paying work—and Lowe’s is betting heavily on that future.
The home-improvement giant exclusively told Fortune that its foundation is investing $250 million over the next decade to help train 250,000 skilled trade workers in fields like plumbing, carpentry, and electrical work. The company had previously committed over $50 million to nonprofits and community college partners, but according to Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison, the shifting dynamics of the workforce have made skilled-trades funding essential to the country’s future.
