How Lowe's, partners hope to change perception of trade jobs

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Mike Mitchell can see the eyes of high schoolers light up when he talks to them during a “trades emersion” session with students of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

[Lowe’s CEO on improvements, looming ‘tweaks’ for retail giant]

Of course, the young people could be reacting to Mitchell, director of trade skills at Lowe’s Cos. Inc., and his contention that a carpenter can make a six-figure annual salary in the Charlotte area.

“You saw this wonderment in their faces,” he recalls.

The sessions are part of a multiyear plan by Lowe’s and 60 of its suppliers, agencies and other partners to change the perception that working in the construction and production trades correlates to hard work and low pay.

The initiative is called Generation T, or Gen T — and it’s an effort by Lowe’s and its partners to fill three million jobs in the skilled trade fields that could be open by 2028.

Jennifer Weber, Lowe’s executive vice president of human resources, says Gen T fits well with the Mooresville-based company’s Track to the Trades program that it launched in 2018.

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Cox Media Group