Clayco is using Rivian’s $5 billion electric vehicle plant east of Atlanta to recruit and train local workers, and the first pre-apprenticeship cohort put 24 area residents through a 20-day course. Rivian put $50,000 toward the effort. Clayco and its subcontractors raised another $220,000.
Construction Dive detailed the program Oct. 20. It’s run by the Construction Career Development Initiative, Clayco’s nonprofit affiliate, on a 4.5-million-square-foot campus in Stanton Springs, Georgia. CJ Adventures, a joint venture of Clayco and JE Dunn, is building the plant, which broke ground in September 2025. The state expects it finished by 2030.
How the Rivian plant pre-apprenticeship works
Georgia nonprofit Construction Ready ran the course, which was free to participants. Graduates could earn up to eight industry-recognized credentials and met contractors who were hiring. The first group trained in space Rivian hosted at the Georgia BioScience Center, a state-run facility, building things like a bench alongside classroom work.
That cohort is one of three. The next trains on the jobsite as work ramps up, and Clayco plans to fold in high school seniors it meets at career fairs. Clayco also gave two scholarships to University of Georgia students, with the goal of bringing them on as interns and then hiring them.
The early result Clayco points to is Aleem Rashid, 37, who spent a decade in real estate remodeling before going through the course. Concrete Strategies, Clayco’s wholly owned concrete contractor, hired him. Rashid told Construction Dive the follow-up and support after the course stood out.
Owner money and construction workforce development
Tony Mezines, Clayco’s executive vice president and project executive on the Rivian job, made the pitch plainly: when clients put money into workforce development, “it can really amplify the success of the program.” CCDI program director Rachel Boemer Ashlock framed it around follow-through, saying human connection “has never been more important than it is now.”
The money is small next to the project. Together, $270,000 works out to about 0.005% of a $5 billion plant. Three cohorts of roughly two dozen people won’t staff a 4.5-million-square-foot build, and nobody involved claims it will. The value is in the pipeline: residents who live near the site, already credentialed, handed to subs who need bodies on a schedule that runs to 2030.
Why the local hiring model is spreading
Rural megaprojects have a labor math problem. Stanton Springs isn’t downtown Atlanta, and per diem crews cost more than local hires. Builders are telling NAHB that labor shortages are wider now than in the 2004-06 boom, and big industrial jobs pull from the same pool.
The Clayco model asks owners to pay a little up front and lets the GC and subs run the program. If Rivian’s $50,000 turns into a few dozen local hires who stay through closeout, expect more owners to get asked for the same check at kickoff.