Facebook partners with JobTrain on construction
“It’s really creating pathways for members of the community that have an interest in going into the trades and earning high wages.” — Juan Salazar, Facebook’s public policy manager
Facebook is putting up money to train about 40 students at a local jobs nonprofit, some of whom could be constructing buildings on the tech giant’s Menlo Park campuses.
Facebook contributed $207,000 to JobTrain, a Menlo Park-based job placement center that offers free vocational training to lowincome people. The money will pay for a 16-week general labor program and a 17-week carpentry program beginning this month, with each one serving roughly 20 students. JobTrain receives its funding from private donations and government grants.
Juan Salazar, Facebook’s public policy manager, said the hope is that at least some of the students will become apprentices with contractors and subcontractors at two Facebook job sites. One building being constructed along Bayfront Expressway and another one is expected to break ground soon. The initiative encourages contractors and subcontractors for the two buildings to call JobTrain first when they need new apprentices, Facebook said.
“It’s really creating pathways for members of the community that have an interest in going into the trades and earning high wages,” Salazar said.
Deborah Picar, 36, who graduated this week from JobTrain’s carpentry program and aims to join a union, said she would be interested in working for Level 10 Construction, the contractor overseeing the Facebook building being constructed.
“The presentation (Level 10) gave us looks like there’s about probably another good 10, 15 to 20 years of work up ahead with all the stuff they want to do around here, so it sounds like a good, solid position,” Picar said. A year ago she lost a home she rented with her two children and then gave up an 18-year career in the corporate world during “a really bad period.”
Art Taylor, JobTrain’s chief program officer who posed the idea of working with Facebook and its building contractors, said Facebook immediately expressed interest. JobTrain has a similar partnership with Webcor Builders, the contractor for Menlo Gateway.
“It was so fast it wasn’t even funny,” Taylor said.