Vice President JD Vance on Thursday launched Foundry School, a national workforce training initiative aimed at preparing Americans for jobs in manufacturing, semiconductors, defense and energy. The announcement came during remarks at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C.
The program is designed to train entrepreneurs, engineers, technicians and industrial leaders as part of the administration’s broader push to rebuild domestic manufacturing capacity. According to a State Department briefing, Foundry School is tied to Pax Silica, which the department describes as its “flagship multilateral initiative to secure trusted global supply chains for the technologies that will define the next century.”
The State Department briefing framed the initiative around workforce gaps left by years of industrial investment that has not yet translated into hiring. “President Trump’s reindustrialization agenda has already brought trillions of dollars in industrial investment to American soil. Foundry School will focus on turning that investment into jobs,” the briefing said, adding that American manufacturers will need an estimated 3.8 million skilled workers by 2033 across semiconductors, defense, energy and related industries.
Vance Invokes Mike Rowe
In his remarks, Vance repeatedly echoed themes associated with television host and skilled-trades advocate Mike Rowe, who has long argued that young people should consider working with their hands rather than assuming a four-year degree is the only path to success.
“Working with your hands is very much the work of the future — and the idea that if you’re working with your hands, you’re not using your mind is one of the dumbest things that America’s leaders ever told a generation of American kids,” Vance said.
Vance said the program is meant to offer an alternative for ambitious young people who might otherwise default to careers in finance or law.
“What we’re doing with The Foundry is we’re telling America’s next generation of entrepreneurs and engineers and just brilliant kids that there is a future, both a financial future, but also a future in the dignity of what you’re going to be doing every single day by actually building things,” Vance said.
He added that the initiative is intended to send a message not just to future business leaders but to workers across the manufacturing chain.
“By leading, not just teams of bankers, but teams of manufacturers and teams of electricians, we’re sending a message to all of America’s kids, both at the leadership level and those below them, that we believe in making things again,” Vance said.
Vance also referenced his personal connection to Rowe’s advocacy work.
“I’m friends with Mike Rowe, the Dirty Jobs guy. He has this amazing podcast, but he’s also working a lot on this idea of why do we have so many people with hundreds of thousands of dollars of college debt, but not the skills necessary to participate in what I think is the beginning of a manufacturing Renaissance in the United States of America,” Vance said.
The launch is the latest step in the administration’s broader effort to reverse decades of manufacturing decline in the United States, an effort officials say is central to national economic security.
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