Meta announced on Monday the launch of America’s Workforce Academy (AWA), a move described as the “largest private sector commitment to the skilled trades with a job guarantee in American history.” The program will launch at pilot locations in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and Texas in 2026.

AWA will be funded by an initial $115 million first-year investment, with graduates of the cost-free program earning both a credential from the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) and an America’s Workforce Certificate, which are both designed to “travel with the worker across employees and industry sectors,” Meta states. The program will support participants while they learn and will guarantee jobs for all graduates. 

Meta has partnered with a number of organizations for AWA, including the National Urban League, the Associated Builders and Contractors, and CBRE, as well as community partners such as the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, STRIVE, and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, among others. 

Meta President and Vice Chair Diana Powell McCormick said, “The AI revolution is bringing change but also historic opportunities. Skilled workers electrified rural America one pole at a time. They manned the factories that built the arsenal that won World War II. Now a new generation will pour the foundations and lay the fiber that secures American strength in this new age.”

The AWA is set to build on a similar initiative of Meta called Level-Up. The fiber installation training program had received 35,000 applicants in its first seven days alone, Meta said. 

Mike Rowe, CEO of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, said in a statement, “Closing America’s skills gap requires us to not only make a more persuasive case for the skilled trades in general, it requires us to completely rethink the way we train the next generation of skilled workers. America’s Workforce Academy does both. Workers are actually paid to learn. There is zero cost to them, no college debt and a fast certification, with a guaranteed job on the other end. This is an important step in the right direction, and one that I hope other companies will be inspired to take.”

The announcement comes just weeks after around 10 percent of Meta’s global workforce was laid off, equating to around 8,000 workers. Of those who remained at the company, 7,000 workers will be moved to new AI initiatives. Meta’s Chief People Officer Janelle Gale said that layers of management would be eliminated. 

“As org leaders worked on the changes,” Gale said in the memo, “many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new org structures. Many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership. We believe this will make us more productive and make the work more rewarding.”