NEW ORLEANS — unCommon Construction has announced it is joining the Lowe’s Foundation’s Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition, a national effort bringing together organizations from across the skilled trades ecosystem to help train and develop 1 million people for skilled trades careers by 2035. For the workforce development non-profit headquartered in New Orleans, the opportunity to work alongside existing national partners like Lowe’s is particularly important to support unCommon Construction’s goal to expand their nationally-recognized construction apprenticeship program to 20 cities in the next decade.
Through the unCommon Apprenticeship program, high school students in New Orleans and the Twin Cities earn hourly pay and school credit as they learn to build a house and complete construction projects. The revenue from each project they complete is used to match apprentice earnings with an “Equity Award” scholarship they can use for further education, industry certifications, or the tools needed for a full-time job. Through the program, apprentices develop skills and relationships that are as enduring as the projects they build together.
By joining the coalition, unCommon Construction will bring its experience and perspective to the table alongside educators, other workforce organizations and industry leaders to identify shared challenges and scale solutions that are already working. This is the largest cross-sector skilled trades coalition and brings together over 75 educators, businesses, workforce organizations, and corporate leaders including NVIDIA, AT&T, Bank of America, Carrier, General Motors, DEWALT and Duke Energy.
“unCommon Construction is proud to deepen our lasting partnership with the Lowe’s Foundation by joining the Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition,” said Founder & CEO Aaron Frumin. “We’re honored and energized to stand alongside this powerful collection of partners to build the future of skilled trades, one person at a time.”
Coalition Targets Skilled Trades Workforce Gap
The coalition will focus on three areas: changing the perceptions of careers in the skilled trades, scaling proven training solutions, and collectively measuring progress from training to employment.
The Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition draws on the proven track record of the Lowe’s Foundation to scale tangible solutions. Its Gable Grants program, which launched in 2023 and supports unCommon Construction’s impact in New Orleans, outpaced initial performance metrics and is now an ecosystem of 73 community colleges scaling innovative skilled trades training programs across 30 states. Outcomes of the program led the foundation to recently expand its mission to train and develop 250,000 tradespeople by 2035 through a $250 million investment.
“The next industrial revolution won’t be built by algorithms alone. It will be built by the millions of skilled trade professionals who power, connect and move this country forward,” said Marvin Ellison, Lowe’s chairman and CEO. “For nearly four years, our foundation’s sole focus has been helping thousands of people enter the skilled trades by investing in America’s most innovative workforce training programs. Today through this coalition, we are answering the call from hundreds of existing partners to lead an even larger unified national effort that will redefine what’s possible when leaders from different sectors rally behind a common purpose.”
unCommon Construction Outcomes
Since its founding in 2015, unCommon Construction has created approximately 650 apprenticeship roles that have generated more than $800,000 in net pay and awards. The nonprofit operates in New Orleans and the Twin Cities and is working to expand its apprenticeship program to Baton Rouge. It recently opened the unCommon Campus in New Orleans to expand programming for youth and adults and serve as an innovation hub for replicating its model in other communities.
