About the Skilled Trades Empowerment Project

Founded in 2022, the Skilled Trades Empowerment Project is primarily a scholarship fund dedicated to supporting and promoting a student's decision to attend school to learn a trade. If you would like your school to be included in scholarship opportunities, please contact us!

It is a core tenet of our organization that we connect with students of all ethnicities, cultures, genders, socioeconomic groups, and identities. We want students to feel comfortable connecting with us as an organization, and comfortable pursuing a career that they find fulfilling and advantageous. We also promise to treat these types of careers and choices with dignity; and ensure families and communities that these are paths of which they can be proud.

Scholarships are only the beginning! In the future, we'd like to offer:

Opportunities for Exploration

After-school Classes: There are local woodworking schools, art schools, summer programs and workshops that would make excellent opportunities for students who are still in high school to try out a new skill or field of study.
Job and Career Exploration: We would like to create a series of short videos that give students glimpses into the daily work life of our network of skilled trades partners.
Get to Know the Skilled Trades: We would like to invite representatives of trade schools and skilled labor businesses to present to high school students, who usually only get to meet reps from 2 and 4 year colleges and universities.

Networking Opportunities:

Even before actively seeking partners in professional development for students, the current members of our organization have active professional relationships in many areas of skilled labor:

Freight railroad repair, and mechanical management (a career track available to people with freight rail repair experience).
Additive Manufacturing.
Scientific and industrial application of drone building and repair.
Unmanned Autonomous Systems (UAS).
A network of professionals, such as: farriers, welders, electricians, bicycle building and repair, automotive and large truck repair, landscape designers/horticulturists/arborists, laser engravers, builders, tailors, plumbers, industrial mold makers, HVAC professionals, furniture makers, etc.