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Explore The Trades Brings the Plan to Revitalize the HVAC Workforce to “All Access hosted by Andy Garcia”

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Shop Classes Faded, Then the Workforce Thinned.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A new Public Television feature examines how a national nonprofit is reintroducing plumbing, HVAC, and electrical careers to American classrooms, and why the coming decade of workforce demand makes that conversation urgent for students, parents, and educators alike.

Explore The Trades will be featured in an upcoming segment of “All Access hosted by Andy Garcia”, set to film on October 2, 2026 at the “All Access” Boca Raton, Florida, studio location and slated for distribution to Public Television stations nationwide. The Minnesota-based nonprofit was started in 2005 by residential home service contractors who had already read the labor forecasts and did not like what they saw. Their answer was to work upstream, at the classroom level, long before a student picks a path.

The feature covers how that work happens now. Poster kits, produced in English and Spanish with a separate series for grades K through 5, have reached more than 1.3million students since 2021 and now sit in over 3,400 school districts, roughly a quarter of the country. The Skills Lab Program, Supported by industry partners like plumbing and HVAC distributor Ferguson and the Comfort Systems USA Foundation, has placed equipment grants in 53 schools across 21 states since 2022. Contractors get recruiting toolkits of their own. Counselors, career and technical education instructors, and administrators are as much the audience as the students themselves, because they are the ones fielding the questions.

“When a student hears the word ‘trades,’ we want them to picture diagnostics, innovation, and a spirit of entrepreneurship, because that’s what these careers look like now. Tradespeople built this nation, and as technology keeps advancing, plumbing, heating, cooling, and electrical professionals will keep building it for generations to come. The skilled workforce of tomorrow is sitting in classrooms today. These aren’t just jobs. They’re career continuums that can grow from apprentice to technician to business owner, and our communities simply can’t operate without them,” Kate Cinnamo, Executive Director, Explore The Trades.

The context matters. Construction and trades coursework disappeared from thousands of schools in the early 2000s, pushed aside by a college-for-all consensus that treated a four-year degree as the only respectable outcome. Districts are now reversing course, helped along by rising federal investment in career and technical education. Meanwhile the shortage that contractors predicted two decades ago has arrived and is expected to persist for at least another ten years. Somebody has to install the systems that heat hospitals, move water through schools, and carry power to everything else. The question of who promotes those careers remains genuinely unsettled between industry and education.

Perception is the other obstacle, and it is stubborn. Plumbing, HVAC, and electrical work now involve diagnostics, connected equipment, energy modeling, and an expanding role for artificial intelligence in product design and service delivery. Technicians read data. Many go on to own businesses. Sustainable infrastructure and smart building systems depend on people who understand both the physics and the software. Yet the word trades still conjures grime for plenty of parents. Explore The Trades argues that industry and education partnerships pay both sides back, giving schools expertise and equipment while giving local employers a durable pipeline of talent.

About “All Access hosted by Andy Garcia”: “All Access hosted by Andy Garcia” is a short-form educational documentary series distributed to Public Television stations across the country. Each feature profiles organizations, institutions, and companies whose work is reshaping their fields, presenting the subject matter in plain terms for a general audience. The series favors substance over promotion, giving viewers a working understanding of industries and issues they encounter but rarely see explained. More information about the program is available at allaccessptv.com.

About Explore The Trades: Explore The Trades is a national nonprofit working to close the technical talent gap in the plumbing, HVAC, and electrical industries. Founded in 2005 by home service contractors, the organization connects education and industry through classroom career resources, equipment grants for middle and high school programs, and workforce development toolkits for employers. Its programs serve students in grades K through 12 along with the counselors, instructors, and administrators who guide them. Details on the Poster Kit Program, the Skills Lab Program, and how to request materials for a local school are available at www.explorethetrades.org.

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SOURCE All Access

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Brahma AI Appoints Shweta Rajpal Kohli as Senior Policy Advisor

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Veteran public policy leader to advise CEO and Board on matters of AI policy and responsible AI

LONDON and MUMBAI, India, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Brahma AI, the AI-native operating system for enterprise audiovisual content, today announced the appointment of Shweta Rajpal Kohli, President & CEO, Startup Policy Forum, as Senior Policy Advisor and member of the Advisory Board.

In the role, she will advise the CEO and Board on AI policy and responsible AI, support the company’s engagement with governments, regulators and policymakers around the world, and also serve on the company’s Advisory Board.

The appointment reaffirms Brahma AI’s commitment to responsible AI and deepens its work around authenticity, provenance and trust as AI fundamentally changes how content is created and consumed.

The appointment comes days after Brahma AI announced it has raised $150 million led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management.

Shweta is President and CEO of the Startup Policy Forum (SPF), representing 75+ of India’s high-growth companies together valued at over USD 100 billion. SPF has been set up to bridge the gap between founders and policymakers. As Managing Partner of the New Economy Collective, she also works closely with multiple global technology and AI companies.

Over her 25+ year career spanning public policy and media, she has led public policy roles across Asia for Peak XV Partners, Sequoia Capital India, Salesforce and Uber. She has actively covered India’s economic policy landscape as an award-winning financial journalist, with honours including the British Chevening Scholarship and the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) fellowship.

Prabhu Narasimhan, Founder & CEO of Brahma AI, said:

“For me, consent has always been fundamental. So are authenticity and provenance. These things cannot be bolted on afterwards; they have to be built into the technology from the start.

As AI-generated and AI-transformed content becomes the norm, knowing what is authentic, where it came from and whether we can trust what we see and hear will only become more important. That belief has shaped how we have built Brahma.

Shweta understands both the opportunity of AI and the responsibility that comes with it. She also understands how founders, governments and regulators can work together. I’m delighted to have her counsel as we engage with policymakers around the world.”

Shweta Rajpal Kohli, President & CEO, Startup Policy Forum, said:

“I am genuinely inspired by what Brahma is building, and even more by how it approaches responsible AI. Prabhu has been remarkably consistent in his vision that the power of AI must go hand in hand with responsibility, particularly around consent, authenticity and provenance.

Very few companies have such a policy-first approach to building. That conviction is what has drawn me in. This is a real opportunity to contribute to a global conversation on AI policy that is still being written and shaped right now, and to engage with governments, regulators and policymakers around the world as rules around responsible AI evolve.

I’m delighted to work with Prabhu and the team as they build high-fidelity AI-led digital content for enterprises.”

Brahma AI is focused on four major global verticals: media & entertainment, sports, healthcare and advertising, where AI is fundamentally changing how content is understood, created, managed, personalised, authenticated and distributed.

The company works with global anchor customers including Warner Bros, the NBA and Mayo Clinic.

Brahma AI’s visual AI technology has been recognised with a 2026 Technology & Engineering Emmy® Award for pioneering work in AI-based face replacement and performance-preserving visual transformation.

Most recently, Brahma AI’s Neural Performance technology was used on Ramayana to create performance-preserving visual lip-sync for the film’s international release, allowing performances to move across languages while retaining the expression and emotion of the original actors.

About Brahma AI

Brahma AI is the AI-native operating system for enterprise audiovisual content. Its platform combines Brahma AI Core, its enterprise content intelligence and management layer, with Brahma AI Studio, its AI-powered creation platform spanning visual AI, digital humans, voice and multilingual performance. Brahma AI works with some of the world’s leading content owners and enterprises and is a recipient of a 2026 Technology & Engineering Emmy® Award for its visual AI technology.

About Startup Policy Forum

Startup Policy Forum is an industry platform that represents 75+ high-growth startups together valued at $100 billion with an aim to bridge the gap between founders and policymakers. With members including Groww, Zerodha, Razorpay, Sarvam, Emergent, Cars24, and Snabbit, it has become an influential voice for India’s startup ecosystem.

Media Contacts

Brahma AI: media@brahma.io
Startup Policy Forum: akashdeep@indiaspf.org

 

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Australian Retailer JB Hi-Fi Selects Vusion to Advance its Connected Store Strategy

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PARIS, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — JB Hi-Fi, Australia’s leading consumer electronics retailer, and Vusion, the global leader in AI-powered digitalization solutions for physical commerce, today announce a new rollout plan to accelerate the digital transformation of JB Hi-Fi’s stores.

Under the agreement, JB Hi-Fi plans to deploy Vusion’s digital shelf-edge technology across its stores, following a successful pilot phase, as well as a full rollout across JB Hi-Fi’s New Zealand store network.

This next stage will further advance the retailer’s connected store strategy while preserving JB Hi-Fi’s distinctive in-store experience. By bringing its recognizable shelf-edge communication style into a connected platform, Vusion will help combine the retailer’s strong merchandising culture with greater pricing and product information, faster in-store execution, easier access to product information for store teams, and greater operational efficiency.

Vusion’s platform also supports store teams by giving team members easier access to richer product information directly at the shelf edge, including through contactless interactions with store PDAs. This helps teams provide customers with more relevant product details, such as available models, colors, financing information and expanded product content, while reducing repetitive manual tasks and improving consistency between online and in-store information.

“JB Hi-Fi is focused on innovation that delivers efficiencies to our store operations and supports our teams in serving customers,” said Cameron Trainor, MD of JB Hi-Fi Australia. “Our collaboration with Vusion gives us a scalable technology platform to support store teams, strengthen execution and advance the next phase of our strategy.”

“We are very proud to support JB Hi-Fi as it takes this important step toward a more connected store network,” said Pierre Demoures, SEVP & COO of Vusion. “Australia is a key market for Vusion and JB Hi-Fi is one of the region’s most distinctive retailers. This agreement shows how connected store infrastructure can help leading retailers modernize operations while preserving the store experience that makes them unique.”

Through Vusion’s native integration with Cisco Meraki, JB Hi-Fi will connect the Vusion platform to the existing wireless infrastructure already deployed in its stores, reducing additional infrastructure requirements while simplifying rollout and helping limit both operational costs and the environmental footprint of the deployment.

About JB Hi-Fi

JB Hi-Fi is one of Australia’s most trusted and best-known retailers of consumer electronics, technology, entertainment, and home appliances. 

The first JB Hi-Fi store opened in 1974 by John ‘JB’ Barbuto with a simple philosophy to deliver a specialist range of Hi-Fi at Australia’s lowest prices. Today, JB Hi-Fi Australia is part of the JB Hi-Fi Group, alongside JB Hi-Fi New Zealand, The Good Guys and e&s. The Group employs more than 17,000 team members in Australia and New Zealand across 355 store locations, home distribution centres and support office.

The JB Hi-Fi Group offers an extensive range of consumer electronics, whitegoods, appliances and home entertainment at great prices, with outstanding customer service from their knowledgeable, passionate team. In addition to their 355 stores in Australia and New Zealand and its websites, the Group also services the commercial, insurance and education sectors.

About Vusion

Vusion is the global leader in AI-powered digitalization solutions for physical commerce, serving over 350 major retail groups in the world.

More information on www.vusion.com

 

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Huawei Launches Intelligent RAIL 2.0 to Accelerate Global Railway Intelligence Upgrade

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BERLIN, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — At InnoTrans 2026, the world’s largest rail transport exhibition held from September 22 to 25, Huawei unveiled Intelligent RAIL 2.0, a new generation of solutions designed to provide multi-scenario intelligent solutions for the global rail industry. The launch event brought together industry organizations such as UIC (International Union of Railways) and UITP (International Association of Public Transport), along with global customers and ecosystem partners, to explore the future of the industry.

Jean-Michel Evanghelou, Director Digital Systems & Innovation, and Financial Control & Project Operations from UIC, stated that FRMCS will be the first step for rail operators to build a solid digital foundation. He added that AI applications will continue to deepen and integrate into the core systems of the rail industry, making the standardization of AI applications increasingly important.

Mohamed Mezghani, Secretary-General of UITP, and Lidia Signor, Head of Multimodal Transport at UITP, also attended the event. Lidia Signor delivered a speech titled “Global Metro AI Intelligence and Automation,” highlighting that UITP, in collaboration with the China Association of Metro (CAMET), has released a research report titled “AI-Driven Smart Rail Transport.” The report showcases how AI solutions have been deployed in various systems, including metro construction, operation, and maintenance, improving the operational efficiency and safety levels of rail transport systems.

In his keynote speech, Raymond Zuo, President of Huawei’s Smart Rail BU, pointed out that as human society enters the era of intelligence, more and more stakeholders are exploring ways to integrate digital and intelligent technologies into their core business processes to address traditional pain points. Looking at the trends, infrastructure will evolve from GSM-R to FRMCS, equipment maintenance will shift toward condition-based and predictive maintenance, freight will develop toward an end-to-end service-oriented logistics model that includes multimodal transport, passenger services will move toward seamless travel experiences, and engineering construction will increasingly adopt digital and intelligent technologies to enhance safety and operational efficiency.

Based on its innovative practices with leading global customers, Huawei has creatively proposed the “intelligent RAIL” innovation strategy. This strategy leverages digital and intelligent technologies to continuously enhance railway safety (Reliable), efficiency (Automated), integrated services (Integrated-serviced), and long-term evolution (Long-termed). Additionally, by defining key technologies across generations, Huawei has launched the new generation of intelligent RAIL 2.0 at this conference, which includes 20 scenario-based solutions. These solutions focus on three core areas—construction, passenger and freight transportation, and facility and equipment maintenance—addressing long-standing industry challenges and pain points. These scenario-based solutions are jointly developed by Huawei and its partners, with Huawei focusing on communication and digital platforms, and partners specializing in industry applications, to provide modular and combinable solutions tailored to the needs of industry customers based on specific business scenarios.

To date, Huawei has served more than 50 major railway customers worldwide and over 300 urban rail lines, covering more than 180,000 kilometers of track. Huawei is not only a leading global provider of ICT products but also a trusted partner for digital transformation in the intelligent era. Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to implement its “platform + ecosystem” strategy, working together with global customers and partners to deepen industry collaboration, gain insights into the evolving technological trends in the rail industry, and promote the deep integration of cutting-edge technologies with rail scenarios. By continuously iterating and innovating its solutions, Huawei aims to empower global rail transportation to move toward a safer, more efficient, and greener intelligent future.

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SOURCE Huawei

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