wsj.com/opinion/high-tech-se… As most of you here know, my foundation has sent thousands of men and women to trade schools all over America. Through our work ethic scholarship program, mikeroweWORKS has helped train the next generation of skilled workers, and in the coming months and years, we’ll train thousands more. But the truth is, there aren’t enough trade schools in the country to meet the current need, and a lot of people who might otherwise consider a career in the skilled trades, have been discouraged by the cost of doing so. Happily, a lot of influential CEO's have done the math and concluded that closing the skills gap is nothing less than a matter of national security. Every week, some leader in some consequential industry calls to tell me about a new initiative to reinvigorate the trades, and many have reached out to see if mikeroweWORKS might join their efforts to help train the next generation of skilled workers. Recently, I’ve been really encouraged by companies like @WellsFargo, @BlackRock, @Ford @HomeDepot, @Lowes, and so many others – all looking for better ways to make a more persuasive case for hundreds of thousands of AI-proof, six-figure jobs that don’t require a four-year degree. The most recent initiative to hit my radar comes from Meta. It looks promising, and I’m happy to support it. The attached op-ed appeared in yesterday’s The @WSJ and outlines the details of The American Workforce Academy - a five-week, super-intensive training program that doesn’t cost the workers a dime. In fact, the workers are actually paid as they learn. And then, they’re guaranteed a job on the other side. I co-authored the piece with Dina Powell-McCormick the President of @Meta, and today, Dina and I'll be making the rounds on the usual networks, talking about the pressing need to attract more workers into the skilled trades as soon as possible. The AI economy, like it or not, is upon us, and the infrastructure that’s being proposed to support it will cost upwards of $10 trillion and require hundreds of thousands of skilled workers. Workers that, for the moment anyway, do not exist. I know that data centers are controversial, and I know people are nervous about AI. I’m not downplaying any of that. In fact, I think it’s really important for those in power to make a more persuasive case for a future that has so many unsettled. All I can tell you for sure is that the future is coming at us very quickly. The AI Race is real, the stakes a very high, and the United States cannot afford to lose. On the other hand, we can’t possibly hope to win, without skilled labor. This program, and others like it, are an important step in the right direction. COMMENTARY (U.S.) High-Tech Seeks Skilled Tradesmen Americans have been told a fable about our economic future. Construction and manufacturing were giving way to a digital economy based on knowledge alone. Skilled labor was outdated. Shop class was defunded. Four-year degrees were idolized. Blue-collar job losses and brittle supply chains were the price of progress. This myth assumed that high-tech and the trades were alternatives, even rivals. In fact, they are interdependent. For 250 years, America has claimed the lion’s share of the world’s greatest inventions. But it was generations of American workers who strung the telegraph wire, laid the railroad tracks, and built the interstate highways and buried the fiber. They shared in the prosperity that resulted. The artificial-intelligence revolution shows that America’s technological progress and skilled workforce are still inseparable. To maintain our technological edge, we need to build infrastructure at scale and with great speed. This requires better pathways into high-paying trades for Americans hungry for opportunity. The skilled trades and Silicon Valley need each other—and America’s future needs them both. That’s why Meta and our partners, including the @ABCNational and the The National Urban League are announcing the launch of America’s Workforce Academy, the largest private-sector commitment to the skilled trades in American history, beginning with a $115 million commitment in the first year and committing hundreds of millions over time. AWA will reject the failed approach that asks workers to pay for their own training and hope to be rewarded with a job. The men and women who enroll will be paid for their time. Parents won’t be blocked from learning tomorrow’s skills because they need to put food on the table today. Courses will take weeks and leave graduates with industry-standard certifications in high-demand fields such as electrical work, mechanical systems and plumbing. Every graduate will be guaranteed a job on a @Meta partner’s construction site. AWA, we believe, is the start of a revolution our economy needs. Practically every major industry is desperate to hire more skilled workers. The mikeroweWORKSFoundation has spent years sounding this alarm. At Metaalone, we anticipate needing thousands more workers as we build infrastructure to empower students, families and small-business owners. There is no lack of Americans eager to learn and work. Earlier this year, Meta launched LevelUp, a smaller training program focused on fiber installation. In the first seven days, we received more than 35,000 applications for 1,000 openings. Demand isn’t the problem. What has been missing is a practical bridge linking America’s workers to America’s needs. AWA will be that pathway. 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 economic strength for a new age. The AI revolution is bringing change and uncertainty, but also historic opportunities. Americans don’t flinch from challenges. When opportunity shows up as a hard hat or a pair of overalls, we put them on and get to work. That’s always been our story. AWA will help us write the next chapter—one where the future is for everyone. @dinapowellMcC is president of Meta. Mr. Rowe is CEO of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation and host of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs.”