Careers & Skills
Amazon plans to prepare up to 100,000 learners a year for skilled jobs by the end of 2028 through a network of training centers in communities where it operates data centers.
The company announced the effort on October 2 as part of a program it calls Built Together, which adds more than $1 billion over five years to its existing community investments.
Training centers on or near data-center sites
The workforce component centers on 25 modular training centers, which Amazon describes as purpose-built facilities on or near its data-center sites. They offer free certification programs in skilled trades that run from four to 16 weeks, with what the company calls direct pathways to employment at Amazon, construction partners and local employers.
Amazon operates three of the centers today, six more are under development and it plans to build 16 more under the new investment. Each center trains approximately 2,000 to 4,000 learners a year, according to Matt Garman, chief executive of Amazon Web Services, who wrote that the centers use equipment such as electrical trainers and fiber splicers.
“By the end of 2028, through these centers we plan to prepare up to 100,000 workers annually for real jobs in their hometowns—fully funded by Amazon,” Garman wrote.
Free community college in data-center communities
A separate part of the program aims to connect more than 300,000 students over five years to free degree access in data-center communities. Amazon says it will cover remaining out-of-pocket costs after financial aid for residents pursuing a certificate or associate’s degree in high-demand fields, which it lists as including electrical trades, HVAC, fiber optics, IT, health care, education, public safety and advanced manufacturing.
Garman wrote that Amazon has begun establishing agreements with local community colleges and plans to launch that program “in the next few months.” Amazon says availability and timelines vary by community.
What the numbers are, and are not
Amazon’s figures are program targets, not completed training counts or guaranteed job placements, and the company has not said that participants will work for Amazon. It has not named the locations of the planned training centers.
“This is not Amazon deciding what communities need—it is Amazon providing resources and letting communities decide,” Garman wrote.
Georgia is among Amazon’s data-center communities: Garman wrote that in Newton County, more than 1,500 people are currently employed in construction and that Amazon will employ 400 people there. Amazon has not said whether Newton County will receive a training center or the community-college program.
What to watch: the locations of the 16 planned centers, enrollment rules, placement outcomes and whether Georgia communities are included.
Sources
- Amazon, “Built Together,” October 2, 2026. https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/builttogether
- Matt Garman, “The race our nation can’t afford to lose, plus a new commitment from us and a fresh set of community investments,” About Amazon, October 2, 2026. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-data-centers-built-together
Featured photo: Electrical apprentice Amber Sommer demonstrates a conduit bending tool for visiting officials, including then-U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, in Portland, Oregon, in March 2022. Representative image of skilled-trades training; not an Amazon training center. Photo: U.S. Department of Labor, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Cropped from the original.
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