Forget waiting until senior year to ask a Wyoming kid what he or she wants to be when they grow up.
Home Depot wants to put a hammer, saw or pair of pliers in their hands at 11 and let them find out.
With Wyoming staring at hundreds of openings for electricians, carpenters, plumbers and other tradespeople in just the next two years, the home improvement giant announced Thursday it is making a major push to get middle- and high-school students interested in working with their hands.
That means getting to them young.
“We actually put tools into kids' hands starting at the age of 5,” Erin Izen, executive director of The Home Depot Foundation, said Thursday on the "Cowboy State Daily Show with Jake."
Its new Path to Pro Skills Explorers program takes the next step, giving kids ages 11 to 17 free hands-on lessons in woodworking, plumbing, electrical work and construction safety.
The goal isn't necessarily to turn every 12-year-old into an electrician — it's to make sure the thought crosses their mind.
“If young people aren't interested in these careers, then we're not ever going to solve the problem,” Izen said.
In Wyoming, there's plenty of work waiting for them.
Help Wanted
Wyoming Department of Workforce Services projections show jobs requiring apprenticeships will have an estimated 1,897 openings between 2025 and 2027.
Electricians alone account for 721. Another 595 are for carpenters and 297 are for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters.
Employment in those apprenticeship occupations is projected to grow 4.8% in two years, compared with 2.2% across all Wyoming occupations.
Wyoming isn't merely watching that happen.
The state has been putting money and programs behind apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, including pathways designed specifically to connect Wyomingites ages 16 to 24 with construction, manufacturing and other careers.
The Wyoming Department of Workforce Services describes the proposition pretty simply: “Get paid to learn a trade!”
Its vocational programs include a four-year electrical apprenticeship offering 8,000 hours of paid, real-world electrical experience as well as paid training for plumbers, pipefitters, welders and HVAC workers.
The agency also offers employers incentives to create apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs.
“Apprenticeships are one of Wyoming's strongest pathways for developing talent,” Shaye Moon, business training and support program manager for DWS, said when the state expanded those incentives last year.
The idea, she said, is to help Wyoming businesses build their own workforce while growing the state's economy, and the need isn't just theoretical.
Just last week, DWS announced another $2 million federal grant aimed partly at moving Wyoming workers into skilled trades, heavy construction, advanced manufacturing and apprenticeships.
The agency said Wyoming is anticipating 33,000 new jobs by 2032 and currently has roughly one job opening for every unemployed person.
What Happened To Shop Class?
Home Depot says 4.1 million skilled-trades jobs are expected to open during the next decade, while just 6% of young people currently express interest in those careers.
So Home Depot and its foundation have set themselves a rather enormous goal: 15 million introductions to skilled trades by 2032.
Its Skills Explorers program was developed with Scouting America and piloted with Boys & Girls Clubs of America. It includes lesson plans, videos and hands-on projects that can be used in classrooms, after-school programs, youth groups or around the kitchen table.
The company also announced more than $13 million in grants Thursday to support the broader effort.
For Chris Waits, Home Depot's vice president of merchandising for paint, the pitch is personal.
Waits started with Home Depot as a cashier in 1990 and has been with the company for 36 years. He's also an Eagle Scout and serves on the board of the Atlanta Area Council of Scouting America.
He remembers going to Scout camp expecting the obvious — rowing, canoeing and fishing — but finding himself taking merit badge classes in forestry, soil and water conservation and emergency preparedness.
“I've seen it firsthand with kids when they actually touch things and do things with their hands,” Waits told Cowboy State Daily. “It opens up possibilities and it makes them think about things they weren't thinking about before.”
He said he believes skilled trades suffer from the opposite problem: Kids can't choose careers they don't realize are options.
Waits said he's met thousands of professional tradespeople during his Home Depot career.
“They've built great careers in the trades, and many of them have their own businesses and have made a substantial amount of money over the years,” he said.
“I don't think young people know this opportunity exists.”
College Isn't The Only Door
Nobody at Home Depot is declaring war on college.
“There's nothing wrong with that,” Waits said of four-year degrees. But, he added, “we need people to actually be able to build things.”
The Wyoming Business Council has identified a thin construction workforce as one factor driving up the cost of building housing — which in turn makes it harder for communities to recruit and keep workers.
Its housing initiative puts the problem bluntly: Wyoming communities need the welder, nurse, teacher, clerk and other workers who keep towns functioning, but those people need somewhere they can afford to live.
“Wyoming businesses are ready to scale, but they hit a hard ceiling when there is nowhere for their workers to live,” Wyoming Business Council CEO Josh Dorrell said as the state approved $8.8 million for workforce-related infrastructure in Douglas and Wright.
Career and Technical Education programs around the state are designed specifically to expose students to high-wage, high-skill and in-demand careers, according to the Wyoming Department of Education.
During her 2026 Tour of Excellence, State Superintendent Megan Degenfelder pointed to programs such as Shoshoni High School's use of local industry experts, professional credentials and hands-on “live labs” to prepare students for nursing, culinary work and technical trades.
“By bridging the gap between the classroom and the real world — whether through high-demand technical trades or deep-rooted patriotic education — we are empowering the next generation of Wyoming leaders to thrive,” Degenfelder said.
Gov. Mark Gordon also has put state money behind the idea.
Wyoming Innovation Partnership funding includes construction-trades programs, among nearly $10 million in workforce development, innovation and research projects.
“We aim to prepare students for careers in fields like precision agriculture, advanced manufacturing, and powerline technology,” Gordon said in announcing the latest round.
Start With A Hammer
Home Depot's strategy is simple: Don't wait for a 17-year-old to sit in a guidance counselor's office and choose between college, work or the military.
Give the kid a project at 11.
Skills Explorers is free, and Waits said parents, homeschoolers, Scout leaders and other youth organizations can download the material and teach it themselves.
The projects are supposed to give kids the experience of making something tangible — perhaps discovering along the way that they're good at it.
For Izen, the timing isn't accidental.
She's the mother of two middle-school students herself and said career conversations begin much earlier for children now, particularly as students decide whether to enter magnet and specialized high school programs.
“They really are having those conversations a lot earlier,” she told Cowboy State Daily.
And if 15 million introductions to the trades by 2032 sounds a little ambitious?
Izen didn't hedge.
“Yep,” she said. “We're going to do it.”
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
