Meta will offer a free weeks-long program at an Indianapolis career training program to teach people how to build data centers, the company announced June 8.
The initiative, which will start later this year and which is known as America’s Workforce Academy, seeks to supercharge the number of workers available to build data centers across the country.
Indianapolis is one of four pilot sites for the America’s Workforce Academy launch. Baton Rouge, Houston, and Columbus, Ohio, were also selected.
Participants will take part in a free four-week or five-week bootcamp. Upon graduation, attendees are guaranteed immediate jobs with a Meta contractor on one of the company’s data center construction sites.
The prospects for long-term employment are unclear. A massive Meta data center currently underway in Lebanon will create 4,000 construction jobs but only about 300 permanent jobs, company officials have said. Meta laid off some 8,000 employees from its corporate workforce in May.
Meta called this latest $115 million investment “the largest private-sector commitment to the skilled trades with a job guarantee in American history.”
“America needs hundreds of thousands of skilled tradespeople — electricians, mechanics, fiber technicians and more — and this program creates clear, accessible pathways into those careers,” said Rachel Peterson, vice president of data centers at Meta in the news release.
A spokesperson for the company could not immediately answer how the program would create those pathways.
Promotional materials do not specify the training program’s capacity or exact dates. A separate Meta program designed to expand the data center construction corps received 35,000 applications for 1,000 slots after its launch in April, the company said.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Meta to offer free training in Indy for workers to build data centers
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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By Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
