Infrastructure of the Internet Pre-Apprenticeship

Investment in data centers and related digital infrastructure continues to expand, with the United States representing roughly 40% of global capacity and projected annual growth near 10% through 2030. This surge intensifies demand for skilled workers who design, build, and maintain the physical backbone of the internet. These roles span HVAC, electrical, fiber installation, networking, and data center operations. Yet most job seekers and students have little exposure to these opportunities or the pathways that lead into them.

Many unemployed and under-employed adults were unsure how to enter these technical trades or assumed they lacked the necessary background. Traditional awareness campaigns and training channels were not reaching them. There was a need for something more tangible that combined hands-on learning with direct access to employers and unions, while reducing financial barriers for participants juggling work or family responsibilities.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) partnered with Eleven Tenths to design the Infrastructure of the Internet Pre-Apprenticeship, a four-week, paid, construction-based course developed with input from unions, open-shop contractors, and major industry partners including Milwaukee® Tool. Local training coordinators and construction employers shaped the curriculum to ensure it reflected real job conditions and hiring needs. Participants worked on applied projects using professional-grade tools, toured active worksites, and met directly with subject matter experts. Community colleges hosted classes and provided instructors and shop space, grounding the program in accessible education infrastructure.

Twelve cohorts have finished since the first opened at Tolles Career & Technical Center in Plain City, Ohio, in September 2024. Ten host institutions in eight states have run the program, and Holmes Community College in Mississippi has hosted it three times.

Where colleges and local papers published counts, 180 people graduated across nine cohorts, most of them in groups of 20 to 22. At Southern Crescent Technical College, all 22 finished. In that first Ohio cohort, five of the 20 graduates already had jobs two weeks after finishing.

Employers stay in the room the whole way, through demos, site tours and mock interviews, and every cohort ends with a hiring fair. Walbridge, Gaylor Electric and Slifco Electric recruited at the Hamlet, North Carolina fair; McKinstry, Apollo and Milwaukee® Tool at Hermiston, Oregon. The thirteenth cohort starts October 19, 2026, at Georgia Piedmont Technical College in Covington, Georgia.

Every cohort to date, in the order it ran. Each ran four weeks at 30 paid hours a week and ended with OSHA 10 and AWS I2PA certificates and a hiring fair.

Graduate counts as announced by each host college or local press. Three cohorts have no published count.