The Atlanta-based Home Depot Foundation has announced investments totaling more than $6 million in support of skilled trades training.

Investments include a partnership with Bunker Labs in support of an eight-week entrepreneurship program for U.S. military veterans and military spouses that includes industry-specific mentorship, as well as education about market segmentation, addressing specific customer profiles, and designing a business plan. It also includes an expansion of the foundation’s Path to Pro scholarship program through support of Folds of Honor, which will provide funding to qualifying veterans and military family members entering or enrolled in accredited skilled trade schools. Additional investments to broaden the Path to Pro program, which is designed to train skilled tradespeople, diversify the trades industry, and address the growing labor shortage in the country, include grants to the SkillPointe Foundation and Home Builders Institute.

“We’re expanding our current training programs and creating new avenues to steadily fill the country’s skilled labor gap with in-demand talent,” said Home Depot Foundation executive director Shannon Gerber. “Diversifying our approach with additional entrepreneurship and scholarship programs helps ensure we’re reaching more communities with free training opportunities and creating sustainable change for the industry.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Iryna Melnyk)