Today the Lowe’s Foundation announced that Howard College San Angelo(HCSA) has been selected from hundreds of applicants to receive $400,000.00 to as part of the Foundation’s investment in skilled trades training infrastructure through the Gable Grants program.

Howard College San Angelo was selected from more than 200 applicants as one of the inaugural cohort of colleges winning Gable Grants to support its innovative and scalable trades training programs. The grant will be used to build a new center for its pre-apprenticeship electrical program and its soon-to-be-developed plumbing program, which will be the only plumbing program offered by a college in West Texas. This will allow the college to serve more students and help meet the skilled trades demand in local communities.

Janice Dupré, Lowe’s executive vice president of human resources and chair of the Lowe’s Foundation said Howard College is a deserving program that is driving transformation in the skilled trades workforce by investing in programs that will prepare students for these sustainable and inclusive career pathways. The Lowe’s Foundation aims to help build a sustainable infrastructure of innovative training programs to cultivate more job-ready tradespeople and address the skilled trades labor shortage in the Howard College service area and throughout the U.S. To support workforce development, the Lowe’s Foundation is committing $50 million to prepare 50,000 people for skilled trades careers over the next 5 years through its Gable Grants program.

The first round of grants announced today total nearly $8 million in grants to community and technical colleges to support skilled trades training programs. In addition to these grants, the Lowe’s Foundation will invest at least $5 million more this year to assist community-based nonprofit organizations and national partners with a strong local presence. This puts the foundation on pace to invest more than $12 million in 2023, ahead of its $50 million five-year commitment.