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For Employers & Shop Owners

The paycheck comes later.The toolbox is needed now.

Getting started in a trade pays off, but the startup cost comes first. Tools, boots, and test fees can run $1,000 or more, and they come due up front, before the trade starts paying back. Company sponsors close that gap.

TurnToTrades exists to give people clear, unbiased information about careers in the skilled trades, and to put tools in the hands of those who choose that path.

See sponsorship levels → How recipients are selected

Status: TurnToTrades Apprenticeship Foundation Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, EIN 42-4909202. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

About the foundation

One mission, two steps

TurnToTrades Apprenticeship Foundation Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We help people find a trade, then help them afford to start it. The free information on this site and the apprentice awards your gift funds are two parts of the same path, not two separate missions. turntotrades.com is a program of the foundation, not a separate organization.

Inform
Clear, unbiased trade-career guides, salary data, and planning tools at turntotrades.com, open to everyone and always free. Donations never gate the content.
Equip
Fixed-dollar awards toward the tools, gear, and program fees that starting a trade requires, for people entering registered apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and accredited trade-school programs nationwide.
Where your gift goes
Contributions fund the Skilled Trade Awards, selected under the foundation's published award guidelines. No donor can direct who receives one, and the information stays free regardless.
The gap nobody funds

Most aid is built for the classroom. The toolbox is on the apprentice.

Tool grants exist, but they're scattered — one state, one college system, or a once-a-year window. Even where the classroom is covered, the tools rarely are. That gap sits with the person, before the first paycheck.

🔨

Hand tools

Day-one hand tools for an apprentice electrician run $200 to $400 — and the required list grows every year of the apprenticeship. Most contractors expect you to show up with your own.

🧢

Boots and PPE

Composite-toe boots alone can run $250. Add safety glasses, gloves, hard hat, and flame-resistant clothing and it adds up fast.

📝

Fees and getting there

Application fees, aptitude testing, OSHA cards, code books, and the gas money to reach a jobsite forty miles out.

Sponsorship packages

Three packages a company can fund

Annual commitments, sized for small and mid-size shops rather than corporate giving departments. Your sponsorship funds Skilled Trade Awards for people starting out in the trades.

Level one
Starter Package
$500 / year
A $500 award toward the cost of getting started in a trade.
Level two
Builder Package
$1,000 / year
A $1,000 award toward tools, gear, and program costs.
Level three
Cornerstone Package
$1,500 / year
A $1,500 award toward everything it takes to start work — the largest award we make.
Why the amount is fixed

Startup costs vary widely by trade. A welder's required gear list — helmet, jacket, gloves, and hand tools — runs around $500 before boots and work clothes, while a machinist or diesel technician's required list runs well past what any single award covers. That's why awards are a fixed dollar amount applied to what a recipient's own trade and program require, and why we publish every award we make, by trade, each year.

What it looks like

Your placard on the sponsor wall

Every package level is listed on this site. What changes between them is size and prominence, never wording — we don't run slogans, taglines, or advertising for sponsors at any level.

Starter Package · $500
Text listing in the sponsor index.
Your Company Name
Somewhere, USA
yourcompany.com
Builder Package · $1,000
Logo card with your mark above the listing.
Your Logo
Your Company Name
Somewhere, USA
yourcompany.com
Cornerstone Package · $1,500
Full card, top of the wall, with what you funded.
Your Logo
Your Company Name
Somewhere, USA
yourcompany.com
Funded a $1,500 apprentice award in 2027.

No sponsors are listed yet. Yours could be the first on the wall.

Recognition

What sponsorship does and doesn't include

The second list matters more than the first. It's what makes this a scholarship program rather than a favor mill, and it's why a shop can trust it with real money.

Sponsors receive

  • Company name, logo, and city on the sponsor wall — size by level
  • A link to the company's own website
  • An annual report of every award made, by trade and by state
  • The number of apprentices equipped that year

Sponsors do not receive

  • Any role in choosing who receives an award
  • The ability to nominate, name, or veto a recipient
  • Awards directed to their own employees or relatives
  • Advertising, endorsement, or promotional placement

A sponsor who could pick the recipient wouldn't be making a charitable gift, and the program wouldn't be a scholarship. Contributions go into a pool the foundation controls, and selections are made under the foundation's published award guidelines.

Selection

Who qualifies, and who decides

Published in full so any sponsor, applicant, or school can read the same rules.

Who can apply
Open to anyone in the United States enrolled in, or accepted into, a registered apprenticeship, a pre-apprenticeship, or an accredited skilled-trade program at a technical school, trade school, or community college. No age limit. Career changers are explicitly welcome.
Where
Nationwide. Awards are not restricted by state or region.
What awards fund
Awards are made as a fixed dollar amount toward tools, gear, and program costs. Recipients apply it to what their trade and program actually require. Awards are paid to the recipient's school or training program where there is an account to pay into, and directly to the recipient otherwise.
Who decides
Selections are made under the foundation's published award guidelines, not by any single person or donor.
Who is disqualified
Family of board or committee members, and any employee or relative of a sponsoring company. This rule exists so that sponsorship can never buy an outcome.
Reporting
Awards are published annually with the trade, the state, and the amount. Recipients are listed by first name and last initial only.