BATON ROUGE — Meta, with the help of Mike Rowe, is launching a new skilled trades training program called America's Workforce Academy, with Baton Rouge selected as one of four pilot locations across the country.

The other pilot cities are Indianapolis, Houston and Columbus, Ohio.

The program is designed to train fiber technicians, welders, plumbers, electricians and other skilled trade workers to meet what Meta describes as a demand for hundreds of thousands of workers. It is part of the Facebook parent company's investment into AI infrastructure, including a billion-dollar facility coming to Richland Parish.

The program is built on the momentum of Meta's earlier initiative, Level-Up, a fiber installation training program that drew 35,000 applications in its first seven days.

Workers in the program are paid to learn, face no upfront costs, take on no college debt and receive a fast certification with a guaranteed job at the end, according to a press release issued by the company.

Mike Rowe, Founder of mikeroweWORKS Foundation, supports the program and argues it's a big win for the U.S.

"I get it. People have heard a lot of different things about data centers, and people are nervous about AI for any number of good reasons. I'll let other people have that conversation. I just know that in the short term, this is going to happen. We're in a race with China, the AI genie is out of the bottle, and we're not going to win without a trained workforce," Rowe said.

Meta is partnering with the National Urban League, the Associated Builders and Contractors and CBRE on the program, along with community partners including the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, STRIVE, Boone County Economic Development Corporation, Richland Parish Chamber of Commerce, Workforce Solutions Borderplex and Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

"The AI revolution is bringing change but also historic opportunities," said Dina Powell McCormick, Meta president and vice-chairman. "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."