The program, called America’s Workforce Academy, will provide tuition-free training for data center technicians and guarantee job offers to graduates, Meta said on Monday. The initiative is designed to help meet growing labor demands linked to the company’s rapidly expanding network of AI-focused data centers across the United States.

Meta said graduates will be offered full-time positions with contractors involved in the company’s data center construction projects. The company did not disclose how many jobs would ultimately be available, identify participating contractors, or specify whether the positions would be covered by union agreements.The Associated Builders and Contractors, a construction industry trade group participating in the initiative, said it expects to train thousands of workers through the program over time.

“The AI revolution is bringing change but also historic opportunities,” said Dina Powell McCormick, Meta’s president and vice chairman.The workforce investment forms part of a broader infrastructure strategy under which Meta has pledged to invest approximately $600 billion in U.S. jobs and infrastructure over the next three years.

The company is building large-scale data centers to support advanced artificial intelligence systems and next-generation computing services.Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has made AI development a central priority, pursuing what he describes as “personal superintelligence” capable of performing tasks autonomously on behalf of users, including creating applications, scheduling appointments and conducting transactions.

To advance those goals, Meta has significantly expanded its recruitment of AI talent, including aggressive hiring efforts targeting researchers from competing technology firms. The company has also undertaken a broader restructuring focused on artificial intelligence development, reducing headcount in some areas while reallocating employees to teams responsible for AI products, models and infrastructure.

The announcement highlights the growing economic footprint of AI-related construction projects across the United States. Large data center developments typically generate substantial short-term demand for skilled construction labor, though operational facilities generally employ significantly smaller permanent workforces.

One of Meta’s largest planned data center projects in Texas is expected to support more than 1,800 workers during peak construction activity while creating roughly 100 long-term operational positions after completion. A separate facility in Oklahoma is projected to generate more than 1,000 construction jobs at peak activity and approximately 100 permanent jobs once operational.

The investment underscores intensifying competition among major technology companies to secure the infrastructure, energy resources and skilled labor required to support increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems.

The debate over how governments should integrate asylum seekers and refugees often centers on questions of employment, skills and economic contribution.

For one refugee who arrived in Britain before the Second World War, the trajectory from newcomer to wartime intelligence operative offers a striking example of how opportunity and inclusion can produce unexpected results.His son argues that Britain should consider allowing asylum seekers to enter sectors facing acute labour shortages, including construction.

The proposal comes as the government plans to invest £600 million to train up to 60,000 workers in trades such as engineering, bricklaying, electrical work and carpentry.The suggestion is informed by family history. The author’s father arrived in Britain in 1939 and was trained as a builder’s apprentice as a condition of receiving a visa.

He worked on housing construction projects near Cambridge, where at least one house he helped build remains standing today.His construction career, however, was short-lived. The outbreak of war brought much residential building activity to a halt. He subsequently found work as a cleaner in Cambridge colleges before becoming a gardener at a school in the East Midlands.

During the war, British authorities classified many refugees and foreign nationals from enemy countries as “enemy aliens,” despite the fact that many had fled persecution by the Nazi regime. The author’s father was among those caught up in those policies and was later located by police and interned.

His circumstances changed dramatically after his release. He joined the British Army and spent three years serving as a cellist in an army orchestra. While he reportedly did not view musical service as the most effective contribution he could make to the war effort, it marked the beginning of a transition from suspected security risk to trusted serviceman.

That transition eventually led to recruitment into a highly secretive military intelligence operation. Working as part of a specialist unit, he monitored conversations between German prisoners of war who were unaware they were being recorded and observed.

Intelligence gathered from those conversations provided information considered valuable to Britain’s wartime efforts.The contrast was notable. A man who had once been regarded by authorities as a potential threat to national security was later entrusted with responsibilities within a sensitive intelligence programme.

According to historian Helen Fry, who has written extensively about the operation, the programme represented “the biggest bugging operation ever mounted against the enemy in British history.” Information collected by personnel involved in the effort contributed to British military intelligence during the conflict.

For decades, much of the work remained classified. When details of the operation were eventually made public roughly two decades later, surviving participants became the subject of renewed public interest.The author’s father emerged as one of the last surviving members of the group and became a frequent interviewee for newspapers, radio stations and television programmes.

He readily discussed his experiences whenever opportunities arose.His public profile grew steadily as historians, journalists and broadcasters sought first-hand accounts of the secret wartime operation. What had once been hidden from public view became an important part of the historical record of Britain’s intelligence efforts during the Second World War.His final television interview was broadcast the day after his death in 2017 at the age of 98.

News of his passing was reported by the BBC and noted in obituary tributes published by major British newspapers, including The Guardian and The Times.

While his achievements may not have carried the global recognition associated with refugee figures such as Albert Einstein, Sergey Brin, Freddie Mercury, Marc Chagall or Madeleine Albright, his story reflects a broader theme often cited in discussions about migration and asylum policy.

Supporters of expanded employment opportunities for refugees argue that individuals seeking sanctuary frequently possess skills and capabilities that may not be immediately apparent when they arrive. Given access to work, training and long-term stability, they contend, refugees can contribute economically, culturally and, in some cases, nationally.

The author’s father’s experience illustrates that argument. He entered Britain as a refugee, worked in construction, served in the armed forces, participated in a major intelligence operation and later helped preserve an important chapter of wartime history through public testimony.

His story also highlights the unpredictability of individual potential. At different moments, he was viewed as a labourer, a foreign national under suspicion, a soldier, a musician and an intelligence operative. Each role reflected changing circumstances rather than fixed assumptions about what he could contribute.

For advocates of refugee integration, the lesson is straightforward: the long-term value of those seeking refuge may not be visible at the moment they arrive. Policies that provide pathways into employment and training can create opportunities not only for newcomers, but also for the societies that receive them.

Rescuers worked by hand amid intense heat to clear debris from the collapsed structure, located about 80 kilometers north of Manila, avoiding the use of heavy machinery because of concerns that further movement of the wreckage could endanger any survivors trapped beneath the rubble.

Search operations intensified after overnight thermal scans detected signs consistent with heartbeats and breathing under the debris. K9 units were deployed while rescue workers inserted flexible tubes into voids within the wreckage to channel air into potential survival pockets beneath collapsed concrete, twisted metal and scaffolding.

Families gathered near the disaster site expressed frustration over the lack of information about missing relatives. Lea Casilao, whose husband is believed to be trapped beneath the rubble, said she had received no confirmation of his condition as rescue efforts continued.

Officials said the confirmed death toll rose to four after rescuers recovered a third body from the site. Maria Leah Sajili, information officer for the regional Bureau of Fire Protection, said one victim recovered earlier had initially shown signs of life but later died, while another suffered cardiac arrest while still trapped beneath the debris.

Authorities warned that additional victims could remain buried under the collapsed structure.
Among the fatalities was a 65-year-old Malaysian national whose body was recovered on Sunday from a neighboring hotel building that was also affected by the collapse, officials said.

Government agencies have opened an investigation into the incident and are seeking to locate the building owner to determine the circumstances surrounding the collapse and establish how many workers were present at the site when the structure failed.

Planning records showed the project had been approved as a nine-story condominium-hotel development. Authorities said, however, that construction work was underway on a swimming pool located on an additional 10th floor at the time of the collapse.

Geraldine Panlilio, regional director of the Department of Labour and Employment, told DZMM radio that the agency had issued a work stoppage order in September 2025 after inspectors identified multiple occupational health and safety violations at the site. The order was lifted one month later after the construction company complied with regulatory requirements.

The collapse has renewed scrutiny of construction safety oversight in the Philippines as investigators examine whether regulatory, structural or operational factors contributed to the failure of the multi-story building.