The Home Depot Next-Gen Workforce Acceleration Strategy Externship

This is some text inside of a div block.

Help the world’s largest home improvement retailer bridge the generational gap in skilled trades and design a bold new strategy to attract, train, and retain Gen Z technicians.

Overview

In this externship program, students will learn strategic consulting skills to analyze and evaluate challenges from non-profit organizations using consulting frameworks, in an overall effort to help them solve their important problems. Selected individuals will be paired with a specific non-profit organization and dive into their strategic problems, such as development, impact assessment, process improvements, talent engagement, communication, and strategic positioning. Throughout this externship program, professionals from PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) will provide mentorship and coaching.

The Experience

Learn about the strategy consulting process and how to help create value for a non-profit client based on their vision and mission
Research and develop an understanding of a given field
Analyze complex problems ranging from fundraising and development, stakeholder management, impact measurement, as well as use consulting frameworks to help identify problem areas and propose solutions
Learn to gather, analyze, and visualize data to inform problem areas and possible solutions
Create and deliver a compelling presentation to a non-profit client that incorporates valuable insights, trends, and recommendations

Qualifications

Ambitious undergraduate students with an interest in consulting, strategy, and non-profits. This program is for students who would like to understand the consulting profession while generating ideas to help impact non-profit organizations.

Program Overview

In this strategy-focused externship, you’ll step into the shoes of a workforce transformation consultant for The Home Depot. Your mission? Solve a pressing challenge: how to build the next generation of field technicians in light industrial, electrical, and mechanical roles.

As industries face a nationwide skilled trade shortage, you’ll explore how to attract Gen Z talent to the trades, design onboarding tools for distributed teams, and recommend scalable training strategies. By the end of the program, you’ll deliver a workforce acceleration roadmap grounded in real-world research and innovation.

What You’ll Deliver

Talent Gap Brief summarizing the root causes of the skilled labor shortage in field services
Gen Z Opportunity Map capturing career values, motivators, and trade interest signals
Cross-Sector Benchmarking Report analyzing 3+ organizations’ recruitment and onboarding strategies
Tech-Enabled Onboarding Concept with chatbot prototype and mobile-first learning ideas
Self-Assessment Tool to gauge new technicians’ trade confidence and tech fluency
Workforce Acceleration Roadmap outlining awareness, onboarding, development, and retention strategies
Insights & Recommendations Presentation delivered to The Home Depot executives

Skills You’ll Gain

Workforce strategy & research
Generational engagement planning
Comparative benchmarking
Talent funnel and onboarding design
Strategic storytelling & executive presentation

Why This Externship?

This externship directly supports The Home Depot’s mission to invest in the future of skilled labor, create inclusive career paths, and prepare a distributed workforce for the decades ahead. Your work will shape ideas that could be implemented at national scale—and help inspire Gen Z to power America’s trades.

________________________________________________________________

Applications for this experience will ONLY be accepted through this application portal. The Home Depot will not be accepting any applications for this externship.

‍

Externship Currently Closed
New applications are not currently being accepted.

Apply by September 5. 2025

Submit your application as soon as you can .

Part-time and fully remote

This Externship is a 10-hour-per-week fully remote experience where all meetings and events are recorded.

September 15, 2025

This remote Externship will last 8 weeks.

$1000 Stipend

Students who successfully complete their externships will receive their educational stipends at the end of the program.

Eligibility

Students must be an undergraduate sophomore, junior, or rising senior attending a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in the United States.

About

The Home Depot

Founded in 1978 with approximately 500,000 associates, The Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement retailer. In 2,300 stores across North America, we aspire to excel in service – to our customers, associates, communities and shareholders. That’s what leadership means to us. That's The Home Depot difference. Our culture and success are built on an unwavering loyalty to eight guiding principles: creating shareholder value, entrepreneurial spirit, taking care of our people, respect for all people, doing the right thing, building strong relationships, giving back and excellent customer service. We live by a simple premise by our founders: Put customer and associates first and the rest will take care of itself.

More Externships

Remote Sustainability Consulting Externship

Apply by September 10, 2025

THIS PROGRAM IS CURRENTLY CLOSED

Marine and Community Conservation Externship

Apply by August 29, 2025

THIS PROGRAM IS CURRENTLY CLOSED

Security Operations Disaster Response Remote Externship

Apply by 9.5.25

THIS PROGRAM IS CURRENTLY CLOSED

< All Externships

This is some text inside of a div block.

Heading

Weeks

This is some text inside of a div block.

Date

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Apply Now Learn More

This is some text inside of a div block.

Weeks

Submit your application ASAP

This is some text inside of a div block.

Location Requirements

Medium length section heading goes here

Apply Now

What You'll Work On

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4

Heading 5

Heading 6

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.

Block quote

Ordered list

Item 1
Item 2
Item 3

Unordered list

Item A
Item B
Item C

Text link

Bold text

Emphasis

^Superscript

_Subscript

Skills You'll Gain

This is some text inside of a div block.