One interesting program is being created through a new partnership between Home Depot and the Girl Scouts, who are together developing a fall program to offer training in skilled trades to girls, which could help address a lack of gender and racial diversity and a shortage of workers in the field.
This coming fall, 300 girls fromAtlanta, Denver and Houston — 100 from each area — will participate in this program.
According to Shannon Gerber, the Executive Director of the Home Depot Foundation, “the workshops will provide hands-on experience with carpentry and other building construction skills.”
The workshops will be led by women, and they will also offer scholarships which could help girls who are interested in pursuing a career in the industry.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2020, 11% of construction workers and 27% of architecture and engineering professionals were women. Similar trends can be seen across the board for blue collar work, clearly indicating that women are an untapped source of labor.
With post-pandemic programs such as these, there may soon be a light at the end of the skilled worker shortage that has plagued such industries for years.
