# Chisel Community — trade schools, scholarships, and apprenticeships

> Chisel reinvests in the people of the skilled trades through trade-school partnerships, scholarships, apprenticeship support, and career pathways from apprentice to owner — including giving its software to classrooms free.

**Canonical URL:** https://chiselindustries.com/community  
**Publisher:** Chisel Industries (https://chiselindustries.com)  
**Last updated:** 2026-07-03

## The commitments

- **Trade schools** — We partner with the schools and programs training the next generation — and put Chisel in their hands from day one, so students learn on the software they'll run a business on.
- **Scholarships** — Funding scholarships and apprenticeships for people choosing a career in the skilled trades — lowering the cost of entry into a great living.
- **Career pathways** — Real paths from apprentice to owner — with mentorship, modern tools, and, when the time comes, the capital to buy in or build their own.

## How the investment actually works

- **The software students learn on** — Free for classrooms. When a graduate walks onto their first crew, the operating system is already second nature.
- **A hiring pipeline that works** — We connect program graduates directly to Chisel businesses and our network — turning training into real jobs, faster.
- **Recognition for the work** — Documentary stories of real operators and tradespeople — told with the production value the trades have earned, not stock-photo gloss.
- **Apprenticeship support** — Backing registered apprenticeships and the mentors who run them — because the trade is passed hand to hand, not in a manual.

## BOLT — Balanced Open-License Terms

A Chisel-developed standard for fair, transparent terms in trades transactions — for customers, crews, and partners alike. A baseline of fairness the whole trade can trust, not fine print that works against the people doing the work.

## Operator films

Chisel produces documentary shorts about the operators it partners with:

- **Paradise Pools** (Pool service, Napa, California, 4 min) — Decades of Napa pools, one crew that never cut a corner — and the day the owner decided the next chapter didn't mean walking away.
- **Vine Homes** (Home building, Napa, California, 3 min) — A builder whose houses hold up wine country's hills — on the craft, the crew, and finding a partner who keeps the name on the door.