Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTCole TrethewaySat, June 6, 2026 at 6:00 PM GMT+2 5 min readNo experience, no problem. Dycom Industries, a company that contracts for data center companies, is building a 49-acre fake town (1) in Monroe, Georgia — one where new hires practice trade skills in a realistic setting. It broke ground in April and is expected to open mid-2027.The goal: to train up a skilled trade workforce, even if that means starting from scratch.Must ReadRobert Kiyosaki says this 1 asset will surge 400% in a year and begs investors not to miss this ‘explosion’Prime US real estate was a rich person's game — then something changed. Now everyday Americans are getting a piece of the action for as little as $100Millionaires under 43 are reshaping investing — just 25% of their portfolios are in stocks. Here’s where their money is going“You’re really taking — I use the joke, but it’s not really a joke because I have two college kids — the kid playing XBOX at home on his couch,” said Dan Peyovich, CEO of Dycom, to Fortune (2).The buildout is part of the company’s push into data centers, a booming business. In 2025, Dycom completed the acquisition (3) of data center contractor Power Solutions. In its Q3 report (4), Dycom highlights how the acquisition “adds substantial skilled labor capacity” to its operations.As AI eats the world, blue-collar employers like Dycom are getting creative to attract the next generation of tradespeople. Dycom offers new employees two weeks paid vacation on day one. Many offer high-paying, debt-free opportunities to unskilled young people — and it’s working.The trades called, they want youCompetition for skilled tradespeople is hitting small outfits hard. Scotty Wristen, the owner of WE Electric in Abilene, has switched to hiring apprentices straight out of high school.“They’re new; they don’t even have a set of tools,” Wristen told the Texas Tribune (5). “It’s usually about four or five months of hell where we have little mistakes that cost us time and money.”He already lost five workers to companies building data centers like Stargate in Texas. The data-center builders offered pay and benefits Wristen couldn’t match.It’s not just small shops — everyone is struggling to find skilled tradespeople. An analysis (6) by Randstad called skilled trades the “bottleneck” that threatened AI-powered growth. The study found it now takes longer to hire a skilled electrician or HVAC worker than a traditional desk worker. That’s because, compared to desk jobs, demand for skilled-trades is growing three times faster.Big players are building their own pipelines. In 2025, Carrier Global Corporation launched an initiative (7) to hire over 1,000 service technicians in the U.S. and train 100,000 more. The initiative follows on the heels of Carrier University, which launched in 2024 to train up HVAC workers.Terms and Privacy PolicyPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info