The iMasons had their first “Apprentice Tour” in September 2017, marking the inaugural event in a series designed to raise awareness of the data center industry among students ranging from middle school through graduate school. It is widely acknowledged among data center industry participants that knowledge of data center careers is limited, and that much greater awareness is needed to attract the number of talented individuals that will be required to support industry growth throughout the next 10 years. The Apprentice Tour program is an attempt by the iMasons to educate and attract young people to infrastructure careers, including all aspects of design, construction, and operation from the service entrance where electricity comes into a facility, through the computer infrastructure, up to the virtual machine.

The iMasons arranged with social media giant Facebook to have students from Southern Methodist University (SMU) tour Facebook’s facility in Fort Worth, TX. Students ranged from freshman through graduate students, including several from SMU’s Data Center Systems Engineering program. In support of the iMasons 50-50 initiative, which promotes participation of women in technology careers, 17 of the 26 students who volunteered for the tour were women.