If you’re rocking a large student loan for an Arts degree in 2025, you might wonder why you didn’t opt for a trade. Google has a dire need for electricians in the States, and the company has offered to pay for their training. Try getting a better deal from your student finance office at a university.
It’s not a small number of sparkies either. Google hopes to get 130,000 people up to speed as part of its efforts to power AI — 100,000 electricians and 30,000 apprentices.
Google how to do it
Placing artificial intelligence onto every electronic device known to man does quite a number on the power grid. South Africa knows all about failing infrastructure, and as it turns out, so does Google. The company hopes to “rapidly increase the capacity of the nation’s existing, sometimes antiquated energy system” by “developing the labor force needed to build new energy infrastructure”.
All of the major players are investigating nuclear energy to power their new AI overlord, even if Microsoft and others are also scaling back on those ambitions just a little. But a little humming circle of power isn’t much good unless it can be directed where it’s needed, and that’s where Google’s new jobs-for-electricians program comes in.
According to the company, “there is demand for trade skills that can construct electrical infrastructure. In particular, a shortage of electrical workers may constrain America’s ability to build the infrastructure needed to support AI, advanced manufacturing and a shift to clean energy.”
The drawback, as far as job-seekers in South Africa are concerned, is… rather a major one. The initiative being done with the assistance of the Electrical Training Alliance (etA) is confined to North America. Even with the numbers Google is putting up, this will only increase the number of electricians in the States by about 70% in the next five years.
But, if there happens to be a little spare funding, South Africa could also do with an all-new electrician workforce. Not because we’re building AI. No, we have… other reasons.
