Pima Community College (PCC) held the grand opening of its remodeled and expanded Building and Construction Technology (BCT) Center on April 15, 2026, in Tucson, Arizona - a facility designed to broaden the regional pipeline of skilled construction workers amid a deepening national labor shortage.
Background
The U.S. construction industry entered 2026 facing a structural workforce deficit. According to the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), the industry needed to attract approximately 439,000 new workers in 2025 alone to meet demand, while the Home Builders Institute's Fall 2025 Construction Labor Market Report quantified the annual economic impact of the skilled labor shortage at $10.8 billion. In Arizona, the shortfall is particularly acute: over 100,000 tradespeople are needed to fill growing demand across the state, according to the Pima Foundation.
The labor gap stems from an aging workforce, decades of underinvestment in vocational education, and surging infrastructure and commercial construction demand. Labor shortages are most acute in skilled construction trades such as carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC, according to industry analysts.
For PCC's BCT program, capacity constraints compounded the challenge. The program operated for more than two decades within a 2,500-square-foot lab, where carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and HVAC technicians trained side by side, sharing tools and equipment with limited resources, according to the Pima Foundation.
Details
The remodeled and expanded BCT Center now spans 25,000 square feet at PCC's Downtown Campus, with dedicated trade-specific workshop areas for each discipline. The project was funded through $1.23 million in congressionally directed funding, supplemented by revenue bonds, according to the college.
The facility broadens the BCT program's existing curriculum in carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, and construction management, adding new training tracks in commercial and industrial HVAC, refrigeration, and heavy equipment operations. According to PCC, the college "will be among a limited number of institutions offering comprehensive training in commercial and industrial HVAC and refrigeration - areas where training opportunities are currently limited."
BCT Department Head John Gerard said the expanded footprint allows the program to move beyond its historically residential focus. "We've been very residentially focused for many years, because of space limitations," Gerard stated, noting that students would now gain exposure to commercial and industrial construction projects. "Each of our programs is going to get as much space as what all four programs had prior to this," Gerard said, according to the Pima Foundation.
PCC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Nasse emphasized the center's practical orientation. "Students won't just learn about construction - they'll gain real, hands-on experience using industry-standard tools and technology under the guidance of experienced professionals," Nasse said in a news release.
The BCT program is part of PCC's Center of Excellence for Applied Technology at the downtown campus and was developed with input from industry partners to align curricula with employer needs. Beyond full degree pathways, the center will offer short-term training for incumbent workers seeking to upskill or reskill in emerging technologies and updated industry standards. PCC also offers NCCER-certified credentials through its PimaFastTrack continuing education track, enabling credentials to stack toward associate degrees via a Prior Learning Assessment program.
The Building & Construction program maintains an existing partnership with Trane Technologies, designed to enable students to program and troubleshoot advanced control systems for heating and cooling, according to PCC. The program is also linked to the University of Arizona through apprenticeships in building control systems.
Outlook
PCC indicated that enrollment for summer 2026 courses is now open. The college has positioned the center to serve both entry-level students and experienced professionals seeking continuing education - a dual mandate that industry observers view as critical to sustaining regional project delivery capacity. According to ABC, failing to close the workforce gap "will worsen labor shortages, especially in certain occupations and regions, placing further upward pressure on labor costs". With the BCT Center now operational, PCC's ability to scale throughput across multiple trades simultaneously will be a key factor in how quickly the facility's impact registers in the Southern Arizona labor market.
