Data center apprenticeships, internships and training programs
Microsoft's Datacenter Academy, Google STAR, Per Scholas and union apprenticeships: who pays, who qualifies, and the 27 internships live on 22 October 2026.
Data center apprenticeships, internships and training programs are run by employers such as Microsoft, Google, AWS, CoreWeave and Equinix, by free providers such as Per Scholas, by community colleges and by union electrical training centers. Most cost nothing to start, and the apprenticeships and trainee cohorts pay you while you learn. This page lists them in one place, free routes first, with what was open on this board on 22 October 2026: 5 live apprentice ads, 27 internships and 8 trainee posts.
The short answer
- Paid while you train: Google STAR, employer cohorts at CoreWeave, AWS and Equinix, Microsoft's academy internships and union electrical apprenticeships.
- Free: Per Scholas's 15-week courses, and Schneider Electric's online courses, with a $250 exam.
- Tuition, often covered by scholarships: community college certificates, including at Microsoft's academy colleges.
| Route | Paid while you train? | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Per Scholas | No, but it is free | 15 weeks, full time |
| Google STAR | Yes | A short course |
| Microsoft academy internship | Yes, $23 to $30 an hour | Typically 16 weeks |
| AWS work-based learning | Yes, $22 to $38 an hour in Ohio | 12 months |
| College certificate | No; tuition, often with scholarships | Four weeks to a year |
| Union electrical apprenticeship | Yes, from day one | Four to five years |
| SkillBridge | Your military pay continues | Up to your last 180 days of service |
Employer programs
Microsoft Datacenter Academy
The Microsoft Datacenter Academy is a partnership with community and technical colleges near Microsoft's data centers. Microsoft supplies an Introduction to Datacenters course, donates lab equipment, lends staff as mentors where it can, and funds scholarships that may cover tuition, fees and certification costs. You enroll through the college.
Its US partners are Estrella Mountain and Glendale (Arizona), Atlanta Technical and West Georgia Technical (Georgia), Des Moines Area (Iowa), Catawba Valley (North Carolina), Central Ohio Technical, Palo Alto and Northwest Vista (San Antonio), Southside Virginia Community College, the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center and a Northern Virginia academy, Big Bend (Washington), Gateway Technical (Wisconsin) and Laramie County (Wyoming).
| State | Academy colleges | Microsoft ads |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Estrella Mountain, Glendale | 5 |
| Georgia | Atlanta Technical, West Georgia Technical | 6 |
| Iowa | Des Moines Area | 0 |
| North Carolina | Catawba Valley | 0 |
| Ohio | Central Ohio Technical | 0 |
| Texas | Palo Alto, Northwest Vista (San Antonio) | 5 |
| Virginia | Southside Virginia, the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, a Northern Virginia academy | 13 |
| Washington | Big Bend | 6 |
| Wisconsin | Gateway Technical | 2 |
| Wyoming | Laramie County | 5 |
The academy is the way into Microsoft's technician internships. Three Data Center Technicians INTERN postings published on 20 October 2026 require past or current academy enrollment and advertise $23 to $30 an hour, in Dulles and Boydton, Virginia; San Antonio; Quincy, Washington; Phoenix; Atlanta; and West Des Moines. Microsoft says its Americas internships typically run 16 weeks and do not guarantee a full-time role. Most of Microsoft's 48 live ads on this board on 22 October 2026 were in states with an academy college, led by Virginia with 13.
Google STAR
Google's Skilled Trades and Readiness program is short, paid training in construction and fiber optics for newcomers to the trades, run near Google data center construction in Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia. You need to be 18 with a high school diploma or GED; apply by emailing your state's STAR contact. Completing it does not guarantee a job.
Amazon and AWS
The Amazon Technical Apprenticeship is not a data center route: none of the seven paths on its program page is in a data center, and none of Amazon's US apprentice postings on 22 October 2026 was at one. For data center work AWS runs a 12-month Work Based Learning Program, whose US openings that day were logistics trainee roles in Ohio, Mississippi and California, the Ohio one at $22 to $38 an hour. It also had a six-month technician internship in Northern Virginia, advertised at an annual rate of $70,000 and open only to students in Northern Virginia Community College's data center operations program.
CoreWeave
CoreWeave ran a paid Data Center Apprentice Program in 2026 for people with no data center experience: six weeks at $25 an hour, four at its Denton, Texas site and two at an assigned data center in Ellendale, North Dakota or Dalton, Georgia, with relocation expected for anyone not local. The listing for the 31 August to 9 October cohort came down in late August, and on 22 October CoreWeave's careers board had no apprentice role open. Cohorts open, fill and close within weeks, so follow the employer's live jobs, not a program page.
Free courses you can start now
Per Scholas runs two 15-week, full-time data center courses at no cost to learners. Data Center Technician with AI Tools prepares you for CompTIA A+, OSHA 10 and NFPA 70E and strongly recommends some IT knowledge. Its October 2026 schedule had classes starting between November and March in Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Kansas City, Los Angeles, North Carolina and Phoenix, closing to applications two weeks before each start. Critical Facilities Technician covers power and cooling, prepares you for EPA 608, NFPA 70E and OSHA 10, needs no previous experience, and runs in Atlanta and Columbus.
Per Scholas also launched a critical infrastructure course co-designed with Microsoft in 2026, and on 22 October a live Microsoft ad in Atlanta carried "Per Scholas" in its title, advertising $24 to $37 an hour.
Schneider Electric's Data Center Certified Associate is the cheapest of the six data-center-branded certifications this board tracks: free courses on Schneider Electric University, roughly 10 to 15 hours, then a $250 exam. Employers rarely name it, as the certifications guide shows, so take the courses before paying for the exam.
Apprenticeships
Registered apprenticeships pay from day one, with raises as your skills grow, and the Department of Labor's Apprenticeship Job Finder searches them by occupation and place.
For electrical work, one long-established route is the union apprenticeship, run by IBEW and NECA through local training centers listed by the electrical training alliance. You apply to your local center; the usual requirements are age 18, a high school education, a year of algebra, a passing aptitude test and being drug-free. It leads toward a journeyman licence, which 172 live ads on this board named on 22 October 2026; how to become a data center electrician covers the route.
Apprentice titles on the board are rare and all in the trades: on 22 October 2026, two HVAC apprentices at Johnson Controls in San Antonio and Austin, and electrical apprentices at IREN in Childress, Texas, Loenbro in Red Oak, Texas, and Switch in Grand Rapids, Michigan. One stated pay, $21 to $38 an hour, and none was for an IT-side technician.
Internships
The board's internships lean toward engineering and construction students. Of the 27 live on 22 October 2026, 11 were at QTS Data Centers, including summer 2027 construction engineering and project management internships from York, South Carolina to Phoenix, already recruiting in October. Ryan Companies had five, including mission critical field and project engineer interns; TensorWave four; Microsoft three and Amazon Data Services one, the technician internships above; and M.C. Dean two. Nine stated hourly pay, with a median midpoint of $23 and a range of $16 to $30.
SkillBridge for service members
If you are leaving the military, SkillBridge lets you train with a civilian employer while the military keeps paying you. Eligibility starts 180 days before separation, for members with at least 180 continuous days of active service. On 22 October 2026 all 8 trainee posts on the board were Equinix SkillBridge cohorts in Dallas, Ashburn and Silicon Valley, five for critical facilities engineers and one a data center technician cohort starting in the first quarter of 2027. The one stating pay advertised $54,000 to $80,000 a year. Data center jobs for veterans covers the timing.
Community college certificates
Northern Virginia Community College's Career Studies Certificate in Data Center Operations takes a year, 26 credits, at the Loudoun campus and prepares you for BICSI Installer credentials and OSHA 10. High school seniors and graduates can apply for ET Career Scholars: a free year at NOVA, including the certificate and a guaranteed internship interview with an industry partner.
Columbus State Community College in Ohio offers a Data Center Technician certificate, and AWS funds scholarships for its students: ten $1,000 awards in the round that closed on 30 June 2026.
Louisiana Delta Community College created a four-week Data Center Technician program, focused on installing and maintaining fiber, after Meta announced its Richland Parish data center. Tuition is $3,698, but college and state scholarships mean many students pay less, and Meta has pledged $5 million in scholarships for Richland Parish high school graduates.
What is open on the board now
On 22 October 2026 the board held 5 apprentice ads, 27 internships and 8 trainee posts among 3,217 live jobs. Two wider counts: 447 ads from 22 employers offered tuition or education assistance, and 68 said the employer provides paid training or will train.
Treat all of it as a snapshot: an ad is not a hire, counts move daily, and cohorts close within weeks. The entry-level hub shows what is live, and a job alert emails you when new jobs match your role and state.
How to choose
- Near a Microsoft data center or in Northern Virginia: enroll at the partner college, which Microsoft's and AWS's technician internships require.
- Need to earn while you learn: Google STAR, an employer cohort, AWS's work-based learning program or a union apprenticeship.
- Able to study full time for 15 weeks: Per Scholas, the technician course with some IT background, critical facilities without.
- Still in uniform: plan SkillBridge early and watch Equinix's cohorts.
Apply for ordinary entry-level jobs while you train, too: those 447 ads are employers offering to help pay for education once you are hired. How to become a data center technician covers what they screen for.