Building Talent Foundation (BTF) has announced the renewal of its annual $300,000 strategic social impact partnership with Resideo Technologies Inc. Through the multi-year partnership and collaboration, both BTF and Resideo are creating new opportunities for students to pursue careers in the HVAC and security and smart home industries, while also helping to address the talent shortage in residential construction.

"Together, we're making a real impact," said Branka Minic, CEO of BTF. "Our initiatives are helping students get into rewarding careers, giving educational institutions relevant curriculum resources and cutting-edge technologies to train them, and providing a well-trained workforce for employers."

BTF and its partners are focused on engaging 1 million youth and career changers to explore careers in construction by 2030 and have set a goal to bring 100,000 new skilled workers into the sector with a strong focus on women and people of color. Together with its partners, BTF is well on its way to achieving these diversity goals. Through its Jobs to Build career exploration and job placement tool, it helped more than 500 students find good paying trades jobs in 2021. Among those placements, the percentage of female workers placed was more than double the industry average, and nearly 70 percent were people of color.

"Resideo's leadership on our Board and Advisory Council has been vital in helping us promote rewarding careers in HVAC to more young people," Minic said. "With their help, we're impacting the lives of thousands of students."

"Resideo is honored to renew our commitment to BTF and its partners. We've accomplished a lot in one year, but we know much more needs to be done to solve the ongoing shortage of talented tradespeople in the homebuilding industry," added Phil Theodore, president, Products & Solutions, Resideo.

Resideo is committed to creating alignment between the skills employers need, and the skills entry-level installers and technicians are taught in trade schools. Resideo built upon BTF's relationships with education partners across the country and formed a new HVAC-Industry Council. It also donated the latest HVAC equipment for their training labs and educational resources for those technologies. On the Jobs to Build site, Resideo also provides information about Smart Home and Security Systems to promote these careers to young people and career changers.