Ford Launched National Campaign to Promote Skilled Trades

The initiative seeks to fill 1.7 million annual trade openings as businesses face persistent hiring gaps.

Updated on Sept. 30, 2026 in Internships

Ford Launched National Campaign to Promote Skilled Trades

Live Poll

Do you believe vocational trades offer as stable a career path as a four-year college degree?

Ford has partnered with the Ad Council to launch a national campaign aimed at shifting youth perceptions toward skilled-trades careers. The effort addresses a projected demand for 1.7 million skilled-trades workers annually through 2035.

Why it matters

Businesses across the country report difficulty hiring skilled labor, with many firms struggling to fill technical roles despite high wage offerings. Ford attributes this to a long-standing national prioritization of four-year degrees over vocational training pathways.

Employers face an annual requirement of 1.7 million skilled-trades workers through 2035, even as unemployment for recent college graduates sits at 5.7%. Survey data of 5,712 people found that only 9% of teens currently consider trades, while 61% report negative stereotypes.

The players

Ford

An automotive manufacturer that produces vehicles and commercial fleet solutions while managing widespread trade-reliant operations.

Ad Council

A national nonprofit organization that produces and distributes large-scale public service advertising campaigns.

Home Depot

A home improvement retailer that operates a massive network of retail stores and manages proprietary workforce training programs.

Alliance for America's Skilled Trades

An industry coalition including BlackRock, Google, and Carhartt that advocates for vocational career pathways.

The details

The campaign utilizes qualitative interviews and surveys to identify specific barriers to trade school enrollment and career interest. This initiative follows private sector efforts like Home Depot’s $13 million investment in its Skills Explorer program and its earlier $50 million Path to Pro initiative. Firms are increasingly focused on these pathways as labor data shows employment for workers aged 22 to 25 in AI-exposed occupations is 19% lower than in less-exposed roles.

Home Depot launched its Path to Pro program in 2019.
Researchers conducted 51 qualitative interviews in April 2026.
Ford and the Ad Council conducted surveys between June and July 2026.
Home Depot invested $13 million into the Skills Explorer program in September 2026.

Market Landscape

This campaign aligns with the data from the Alliance for America's Skilled Trades report, which highlights a massive long-term vacancy trend. It builds on the precedent set by retailers like Home Depot, which began funding dedicated workforce training pipelines in 2019.

Operators should evaluate their current dependency on skilled trades and consider whether their existing recruitment strategies account for the shifting interests of Gen Z workers. Monitoring the success of these large-scale awareness campaigns may provide a signal for future local hiring efforts.

The takeaway

The skilled-trades labor gap is a structural challenge that now rivals the employment prospects of traditional four-year degree holders. Owners should review their internal training programs or local trade-school partnerships to secure a reliable talent pipeline before competition for these workers intensifies.