Tucson High Schoolers Await Market Pickup At On-Site Craft Apprentice ‘Learning Lab’
Despite bumps and twists in Arizona’s commercial and housing construction markets, builders and high-school educators there have linked to keep the craft pipeline full for an anticipated market revival and expected retirement-driven workforce gaps.
“We believe the economic downturn is a temporary phenomenon, and when it’s over, we will have more work than we have skilled labor,” says Dave Pittman, director of the Southern Arizona division of the Arizona Builders’ Alliance, a statewide contractor group whose 400 members include both union and nonunion firms. It teamed with the Pima County Joint Technological Education District (JTED) in Tucson last year to expand and equip a “learning laboratory” in a local magnet high school to teach electrical and HVAC trade skills to students.