Verizon today announced a total investment of $70 million for Verizon AI Skills for America, a new initiative designed to empower job seekers, early career professionals, displaced workers, educators, and small businesses with the skills needed to thrive in the AI era and strengthen the U.S. economy.
The program represents the next step forward in Verizon’s long-standing journey to help close the digital divide and support the American workforce and their communities. This investment combines Verizon’s existing $20 million Reskilling and Career Transition Fund for departing workers with $50 million in new funding to provide access to best-in-class AI skills training at no charge to learners.
One-stop access to premium AI learning
To make AI training more accessible to all, Verizon is curating a one-stop-shop portal that consolidates high-value training content from leading AI experts, including IBM, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, Coursera, and OpenAI, at no cost to participants.
This type of premium AI training can cost more than $700 per person per year. By providing these resources for free, Verizon and its partners are helping bridge the skills gap for learners at every career stage—including students, job seekers, small businesses, educators, and transitioning professionals.
Turning skills into opportunity through community partnership
While providing high-quality content is important, Verizon knows from its deep experience in digital skilling initiatives that providing access alone is not enough. The program’s cornerstone is the collaboration with trusted mission-based organizations like Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), and Goodwill Industries International, the largest nonprofit provider of job training and career placement services in North America. These organizations possess trusted relationships within communities and are well-positioned to provide the hands-on coaching, curriculum guidance, and local support necessary to turn online coursework into practical, real-world skills and increased confidence.
