by Kim Souza (ksouza@talkbusiness.net)
Two years after Walmart tested a program for employees to become truck drivers, the retail giant is expanding the program to include training for employees to pursue maintenance, refrigeration and HVAC, and automation support jobs in the retail giant’s operations.
Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner said around 700,000 hourly store employees will be eligible for the new training being tested in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro with 100 participants. He said often an entry-level retail job can end up being a lifetime career which was his case 31 years ago when he took a part-time job in the garden center at Store 100 in Bentonville.
Walmart said the employee tech training is a six-month program that allows participants to also earn their pay while they learn the new trade. The program seeks to meet the critical demand and limited workforce in the skilled trades. Walmart expects to increase its technician jobs from 450 to 2,000 in the next two years.
