(The Center Square) – Grand Canyon University and McCarthy Building Companies have created a pre-apprenticeship pathway for students interested in construction.
GCU’s Center for Workforce Development announced this week it will offer classes in civil construction, mechanical/plumbing, concrete, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning. The civil construction and mechanical/plumbing courses will start this fall, while the other two will begin in fall 2026.
The Phoenix university is “proud to work with [MBC] to create meaningful opportunities for students who might not otherwise have thought about or known how to pursue a career in construction,” said Shelly Seitz, director of GCU’s Center for Workforce Development.
This pathway is a “win-win,” said Eric Fields, regional self-perform leader for MBC’s Southwest region.
He said students will be introduced to “career paths in the construction trades, and employers get candidates who are informed and committed to developing their careers in the construction industry.”
The construction industry needs workers because of a “massive shortage,” Seitz told The Center Square.
She added the construction industry is “booming” in Arizona. “There are buildings going up, and there are cranes everywhere.”
Jobs are opening up as the construction industry grows in cities and employees retire, Seitz said. She noted worker shortages exist not just in construction but in all trades.
Moreover, Fields said, finding trade employees in today’s economy “is getting tougher and tougher due to the generational gap.”
MBC realized it needed to build its construction workforce “from the ground up,” Fields told The Center Square.
By 2030, the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity and the U.S. Department of Labor estimate 20,000 new construction trade jobs will need to be filled to meet the state’s demand.
For the pathway to meet the demand, MBC supplied money for scholarships, faculty and other related items, Seitz said.
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Seitz explained the project is called a “pathway” because it still needs its curriculum approved by the U.S. Department of Education. Once that happens, the project will be called a “program.”
After a program is established, the federal government will make financial aid available to students, Seitz noted. This will allow them to apply for grants, loans or scholarships.
According to Seitz, if a pathway becomes a program, companies will still provide funding to support it, but the money will be allocated to an institutional aid fund, which allows students to apply for scholarships.
Fields said the company partnered with GCU for reasons such as the workforce development center’s electrical program, which has had over 490 electrical pre-apprenticeship and manufacturing CNC machinist students since 2022.
The partnership with GCU is a “great pipeline” for MBC, Seitz said. “They don’t have to go find their own talent.”
Fields noted forming this partnership allows MBC to “find young, qualified [workers] that we can put into our training programs to build the workforce for tomorrow.”
MBC worked with GCU to develop a two-semester course for the pathway.
During the first semester, students will take a general construction course that explores pipe fitting, plumbing, HVAC, electrical and other industries, according to Fields.
The following semester, students will choose an area that interests them the most and do a “deep dive” into that subject, he said.
GCU instructors will teach the courses for this pathway, Fields said. He added MBC will come in one day every semester to talk about what it’s like working in a particular trade.
Seitz said GCU recruits students at high schools and finds them during its work with “underprivileged families and people that are marginalized.”
Fields explained if MBC were going to hire students, they would be evaluated for six months, then put in a four-year apprenticeship program. During this time, pay would increase as they moved up in their apprenticeship, Fields said.
He said the wages that the building company offers for its apprenticeship program are “very competitive” for the construction industry.
“There is a lot of opportunity within the industry to have a career and have a great-paying job that can be rewarding over time,” he explained.
Seitz said this new pathway with MBC is a way for people “to have careers,” which will allow them the ability to move into the “upper middle class.”
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She added these trade programs provide students with the opportunity to change the trajectory of their lives and those of their families.
Besides this partnership with GCU, MBC opened an Innovation & Craft Workforce Center two years ago in the Phoenix suburb Chandler. This is where the company provides ongoing education to its employees in various areas.