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Friday, August 28, 2026
Over $900M requested through BlackRock Future Builders program, skilled trades demand grows
Woodworking Network: The first national Request for Proposals (RFP) from BlackRock Future Builders has closed after drawing more than 1,000 applications from organizations across the country, highlighting the growing demand for resources that help connect more Americans to skilled trades careers.
There is such a huge demand for people in trades like HVAC, plumbing, electrical, welding, pipefitting, ironworking, and so many others. What really caught my attention was that organizations working to train and support these workers requested more than $900 million in funding through the BlackRock Future Builders program. The BlackRock Foundation committed $25 million through two funding cycles to help workers access high-quality skilled trades training, which is a great investment in the workforce. But when you see that organizations were asking for over $900 million, it really puts into perspective how much need there is out there. And even with investments like this in training, the demand for skilled workers continues to grow. The article points to estimates that as many as 2.1 million skilled trades positions could go unfilled by 2030. I think that is pretty interesting because we hear so much about technology, AI, and college careers, but there is still a massive need for people with hands-on skills who can actually build, repair, install, and maintain the things the country depends on.
This deficit is very concerning for me, especially as I've worked in "blue-collar" environments on live entertainment projects. Despite their investment, I still find a lot of concern that companies like BlackRock are the ones making these investments, especially as data centers continue to go up; they require labor like this. As an example I was working on a project at the shedd aquarium with a major rennovation lots of lighting wokr done, one of the challenegs was we had to constanstly retrain the electricans wokring these as so many went to work on higher paying projects, mostly at data cwners. Another issue I noticed that the article pointed out, and in my experience, is that there often is a huge benefit from experience being passed down from older skilled tradesmen to their apprentices, and some of this is being disrupted by both the lack of middle-aged tradespeople and the AI centers going up.
2 comments:
There is such a huge demand for people in trades like HVAC, plumbing, electrical, welding, pipefitting, ironworking, and so many others. What really caught my attention was that organizations working to train and support these workers requested more than $900 million in funding through the BlackRock Future Builders program. The BlackRock Foundation committed $25 million through two funding cycles to help workers access high-quality skilled trades training, which is a great investment in the workforce. But when you see that organizations were asking for over $900 million, it really puts into perspective how much need there is out there. And even with investments like this in training, the demand for skilled workers continues to grow. The article points to estimates that as many as 2.1 million skilled trades positions could go unfilled by 2030. I think that is pretty interesting because we hear so much about technology, AI, and college careers, but there is still a massive need for people with hands-on skills who can actually build, repair, install, and maintain the things the country depends on.
This deficit is very concerning for me, especially as I've worked in "blue-collar" environments on live entertainment projects. Despite their investment, I still find a lot of concern that companies like BlackRock are the ones making these investments, especially as data centers continue to go up; they require labor like this. As an example I was working on a project at the shedd aquarium with a major rennovation lots of lighting wokr done, one of the challenegs was we had to constanstly retrain the electricans wokring these as so many went to work on higher paying projects, mostly at data cwners. Another issue I noticed that the article pointed out, and in my experience, is that there often is a huge benefit from experience being passed down from older skilled tradesmen to their apprentices, and some of this is being disrupted by both the lack of middle-aged tradespeople and the AI centers going up.
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