Republished from the St. Louis Business Journal –

A new $90 million national initiative from Bloomberg Philanthropies aimed at expanding skilled trades training for high school students is set to bring new workforce development opportunities to the St. Louis region through partnerships with local schools, employers, unions and nonprofits.

The program, announced Monday, will launch in nine regions nationwide, including St. Louis. It’s intended to create a more direct pathway for high school students to enter high-demand, high-wage trades such as electrical work, plumbing, construction and HVAC. The program also addressing a growing shortage of skilled workers, officials said.

The initiative will provide coursework and paid on-the-job training for about 15,000 students nationally, with 2,000 expected to advance into registered apprenticeships, according to a news release.

In St. Louis, the effort will focus on manufacturing and the building trades, and will be led locally by education nonprofit The Opportunity Trust, according to the release. Local partners are Civil Design Inc., Craftsmen Industries, Gateway Science Academy, Hoffman Brothers, Independent Electrical Contractors, Quest Specialty Products, Kairos Academies, Mid-America Carpenters Union, Streib Electric, Seyer Industries, True Manufacturing and University City High School.

By integrating coursework with paid, on-the-job training, the program will allow students to begin earning industry credentials and gaining work experience before graduating from high school, officials said.

Bloomberg Philanthropies said it will fund wages and support, such as transportation and tools, for students in paid on-the-job training and apprenticeships; the technical and pre-apprenticeship coursework as hiring of instruction staff; and capital upgrades and retrofitting for school facilities, such as welding labs and carpentry shops.

“Millions of good-paying jobs are going unfilled, and too many students never get a chance to learn the skills necessary to get them. This new initiative will help change that,” Bloomberg Philanthropies founder Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

Officials said the program will formalize partnerships among school systems, labor unions, employers and local organizations, creating a more coordinated pipeline from classroom learning to apprenticeships and long-term careers. Participants will receive technical instruction co-designed with unions and employers, along with hands-on training and access to apprenticeship programs.

The nine participating regions chosen for the initiative were based on localized labor market data and long-term projections for trades career growth, according to the release. The other regions in the program are Boston; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Detroit; Houston; Raleigh, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and the state of New Jersey.

Bloomberg Philanthropies said the new program builds on its broader investments in career and technical education, which now total $570 million nationwide. The organization encompasses all of the philanthropy of billionaire Michael Bloomberg, including his foundation, corporate and personal giving and the philanthropic consultancy Bloomberg Associates. Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $4.3 billion in 2025, according to the organization.