All across Arkansas, one can feel the steady pulse of progress, a state on the rise. Throughout every region of the state, from the Diamond Lakes to the River Valley and from the Boston Mountains to the southern Delta, growth and vitality are readily apparent, ushered in by craftspeople and skilled workers who build, maintain, repair and enhance the backbone of the Natural State.
There was a time not long ago when such progress was nearly at a standstill in Arkansas, ground almost to a halt for lack of workers with the right training and skills. Recognizing that, the Arkansas Construction Education Foundation was formed in 1994 with the express purpose of producing a safe, competent and professional workforce for skilled industries through affordable, accessible skilled training.
Now entering its fourth decade, the organization’s mission is stronger and more dynamic than ever.
“Since we were incorporated in 1994, we’ve trained over 15,000 apprentices across the state of Arkansas, and 100 percent of those students have completed their training with zero tuition debt,” said Zach Sloan, ACEF executive director. “That’s not only a win for the students and their employers; it’s a win for Arkansas. When there isn’t enough skilled labor in the market, companies are forced to compete for a limited workforce, driving up project costs and ultimately increasing prices for consumers and clients.
Zach Sloan
“Our mission directly addresses that challenge. By providing quality, affordable training, we help stabilize the industry’s labor pipeline and strengthen the state’s overall economy. The impact extends far beyond the classroom; we’ve had apprentices who started out earning a modest wage, worked their way up to become licensed master electricians and plumbers, and eventually launched their own businesses. Many now employ their own crews, invest back into their local communities and contribute to Arkansas’ economic growth.”
Sloan added that as the state’s construction industry continues to expand, so has the demand for skilled workers, far outpacing current training capacity.
“We’re at a pivotal moment,” he said. “Arkansas is growing. Infrastructure projects, commercial development and industrial expansion are all driving the need for more trained professionals than ever before. To keep up, we have to modernize our facilities, expand our programs and create space for the next generation of tradespeople to learn and thrive.
“That’s what led to our Building Tomorrow Capital Campaign. This campaign was launched to meet the industry’s growing needs by creating a new state-of-the-art construction campus at the Port of Little Rock. The facility will feature specialized labs for every major trade that will be equipped with the latest tools and technology to mirror real-world jobsite conditions. It’s designed not just to train workers but to inspire careers.”
A native of McGehee, Sloan joined ACEF as deputy director seven years ago and has been in his current position for two years. He leads an organization that operates in nine locations statewide, including Jonesboro, Jacksonville, Forrest City, Russellville, Conway, Morrilton, Springdale, Fort Smith, in addition to the original Little Rock campus.
The group is on the threshold of a major turning point in its history with the opening of its new training facility at the Port of Little Rock. The new 12-acre campus will include the expansion and renovation of the current 23,000-square-foot main building, as well as a standalone heavy and civil trade building to be completed in August 2026.
The compound will give the Little Rock location the capacity to as much as double its student capacity, as well as bring more technology and equipment into the classroom.
“This new building affords every trade their own individualized skills lab with all of the equipment and resources needed to simulate real-world jobsite conditions,” Sloan said. “For the first time, our electrical, plumbing, HVAC, carpentry and heavy equipment programs will each have dedicated training spaces that mirror what our students will experience in the field. That hands-on experience is what truly prepares them for success.
“I want ACEF to be known for having the best instructors and the highest quality education in the state not just in construction training but as a model for workforce development. This new facility is going to be a big part of that. It’s more than a building; it’s an investment in the future of Arkansas’s skilled trades. It represents our commitment to providing the next generation of craftsmen and women with the tools, environment and mentorship they need to thrive in their careers.”
Instructor Jason Green leads a Year 3 electrical course.
The curriculum has grown alongside the organization’s physical presence and now includes nonlicensed training programs in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning; electronic systems technician; and sprinkler fitting and carpentry, along with ACEF’s legacy licensed programs in electrical and plumbing. In all, about 1,000 individuals are trained annually by ACEF’s teaching staff of 55 industry professionals. Classes meet one night a week for two to four years, depending on the program.
Sloan said the group is actively working to bring more training programs into reality, in keeping with the needs of the state’s builders and manufacturers. Sloan said thanks to a $1 million grant, ACEF will be able to equip the Little Rock training center with the latest in technology and equipment for existing courses and helping to launch new ones.
“Our big push right now is to expand our program offerings,” Sloan said. “By staying in constant communication with our employer partners and monitoring what’s happening out in the field, we’ve identified several key training gaps across the state, particularly in the heavy and civil construction sectors. That includes areas like heavy equipment operation, diesel mechanics, concrete finishing and masonry, all critical trades where demand continues to outpace the available workforce.”
Sloan credits the organization’s strong industry partnerships, especially with Associated General Contractors of Arkansas, for helping ACEF stay connected to the real needs of contractors.
“Our partnership with AGC Arkansas has been one of the greatest strengths behind our growth,” he said. “We’ve worked hand in hand to identify workforce challenges and create solutions that have a lasting impact. AGC’s members are not only advocates; they’re actively engaged in shaping the programs that build our workforce pipeline.”
“To meet those needs, we’ve worked closely with the U.S. Department of Labor to gain approval for new apprenticeship programs in additional skilled trades, such as ironworking, millwright and welding,” Sloan added. “These new programs build on the strong foundation we’ve established through our core trades in electrical, plumbing and HVAC, which are the backbone of ACEF’s success. It’s a win-win for the workers, the employers and the economic future of our state.”
All of that progress and growth comes from direct input from industry figures who advise ACEF leadership of employers’ needs at the jobsite or in the manufacturing facility.
“We’re a heavy highway contractor, so we specialize in Department of Transportation and airfield, airport work,” said Jonathan Stalnaker, chief financial officer at Weaver Bailey Contractors in Conway and an ACEF board member. “We’ve seen the need for workforce development and training over the years, and so it was a natural progression to start getting more heavily involved with [ACEF] and really help lead the way in this effort.
John Stalnaker
“For us, we’ve seen a need from the education side for more heavy equipment operators and diesel mechanics, which are a huge, huge piece of what we do running our own shop. Zach and ACEF have been a huge resource, and they’ve helped us start up two training programs, as well as multiple efforts in concrete, which is really our bread and butter.”
Stalnaker said having a resource like ACEF allows a company to hire someone with little to no experience or training and let them earn as they learn. He said the program is a good mix of classroom instruction with hands-on or simulated training that can be reinforced on the job.
“We will hire someone as a laborer, and then they’ll express interest in being an operator,” he said. “ACEF gives us a resource where we can put them through an education program or apprenticeship that trains them to where when they come back to us knowing the basics of how to operate, and then we can train them from there.
“It really gives them a leg up, and it positions them for bigger things. Most of our foremen and superintendents all know how to operate, so this is a huge advantage for the next generation.”
Stalnaker said the organization has done more than just fulfilled its education mission; it has also doubled down in its outreach efforts into high schools to help expose future workforce to the career opportunities that lie in the skilled professions.
“We just don’t have that pipeline of people coming into the trades that we need,” he said. “As a board, we want to work to change how people view this work, seeing it as a long-term, successful career path with a lot of opportunity. We’ve focused on how we deliver that message and how we can make it really appealing to kids who are coming out of high school.”
The grassroots efforts are particularly well timed, taking advantage of several shifts in societal attitudes toward higher education. Not long ago, a four-year degree was being sold as a one-size-fits-all prerequisite for success in the workplace, a view that has fallen out of favor.
According to statistics by ThinkImpact, only 41 percent of U.S. college or university students will graduate in four years or less. This year alone, the site reported, fully a third of undergraduate students will drop out of college entirely. Meanwhile, many of those who stick it out do so under heavy debt. Forbes reported last year that more than half of students at public colleges and universities and nearly 6 in 10 students attending private institutions graduated with student loan debt. The magazine reported students owed just less than $30,000 per borrower on average.
Proponents of skills-based education do not suggest that there is no value in a four-year degree, merely that there are viable alternatives. They are quick to compare the stark contrast in the cost of a skilled education and market demand for those skills. In Arkansas alone, there are 79 workers for every 100 jobs overall, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce states, and among skilled professions, the numbers are even more in a worker’s favor.
McKinsey & Co. calculated an enormous future demand in what it called critical trade categories nationwide, including electricians, HVAC, plumbers, welders, industrial mechanics and maintenance workers. The company predicted total annual hires between 2022 and 2032 of more than 584,000 — 22 times the anticipated 28,600 yearly net new jobs created during that time — to fill existing and future vacancies brought on by growth and retirements of older workers.
These statistics give ACEF leadership a powerful argument for considering a skilled career, particularly when tuition and materials cost a typical ACEF student around $1,000 per year all in.
“The important thing the organization has tried to explain to prospective students and their parents is that college is not for everyone,” Stalnaker said. “More than that, you don’t have to go to college to have a very successful career. We stress that and try to be really transparent about what the opportunities are out there. That’s really helped shape our growth over the last four years.”
ACEF takes the conversation a step further through its preapprenticeship program, which trains students in a skilled profession during their senior year of high school.
“We run it just like a traditional registered apprenticeship program, one evening a week,” Sloan said. “It would be easy to do it during the day, but I want the students to have some skin in the game, to give up something to complete their training. We talk to them about how this is an opportunity that could change their lives if they really come in here to grow and to learn. We want them to take it seriously.”
Jon Thompson, an ACEF board member and instructor at the Fort Smith campus, called the successful preapprenticeship program the most important thing the organization has going right now.
Jon Thompson
“It’s a great program. I’ve been in those classes here in Fort Smith, and those kids are just awesome,” he said. “They’re engaged. They want to ask questions. The program reaches everybody, but it is really impactful for disenfranchised students on the lower-income side. It is very satisfying to see how the preapprenticeship program gives them a pathway to success. These kids want to work, and they are willing to go after the education they need to do that work.”
Thompson, who owns Controlled Access Systems in Fort Smith, has been an instructor for 10 years and is also a graduate of the ACEF program, having completed his four-year electrical apprenticeship in 2009. He said the biggest change he has seen has been a higher percentage of students staying through the duration of the program.
Another instructor who graduated from the electrical program is Kathleen Brock, senior project analyst at Entegrity Energy Partners in Little Rock. She said in addition to the technical instruction, she enjoys interacting with students and the chance it gives her to open their eyes to the many ways they can apply their education in the workplace.
Kathleen Brock
“Being an electrician doesn’t mean that you have to work in the field,” she said. “I do a lot of commissioning where I inspect solar fields, and I do energy audits on the insides of buildings. This skill is not limited to just pulling wires and making circuits. There are so many more things that you can do.
“When I was a student, we did labs where we ventured outside of our specific trade, meaning some of us were residential electricians and some of us were industrial electricians and some of us were commercial electricians. The school offered us labs that would dip us into each one of those categories so we got experience outside of what our regular specialty was. I thought it was a phenomenal experience.”
Brock also said having gone through the program recently — completing her electrical apprenticeship in 2021 — is another way for her to relate to students where they are at.
“I overcame a hurdle to become an electrician because I had a reading impairment,” she said. “I had to learn how to read and understand exactly what I was reading. I knew how to work hard and how to work in the field, but what I didn’t know was how to retain written information that was the most important. ACEF helped me through that.”
For everything positive that ACEF is achieving, there are still major challenges to overcome for the organization to reach its full potential. The group celebrated a recent bill passed by the Arkansas legislature that appeared to make trade school students eligible for Arkansas Lottery scholarships, but upon closer examination, the bill fell short of its promise.
“Upon closer examination it became clear that most trade schools in the state of Arkansas like ACEF didn’t qualify for access of those dollars,” Sloan said. “We fall under the United States Department of Labor and not the Department of Education and that distinction has excluded roughly 8,500 apprentices across the state from receiving lottery scholarship fund.”
Students complete ACEF training in two to four years, depending on program.
Sloan said he plans to appeal to lawmakers at the next opportunity to get the oversight fixed but in the meantime is taking the case for funding skilled education to Washington, where he meets with Arkansas’ congressional delegation. He is also committed to finding as many ways as possible to keep ACEF’s programs affordable and accessible to the widest number of students.
Most of all, he is keeping his eye on the ball when it comes to growing and executing the group’s mission, which not only fills jobs but changes lives.
“I want to make sure we’re keeping up with the times, keeping students first and making this education as valuable to them as possible,” Sloan said. “I want to make sure we’re keeping up with the times, keeping students first, and making this education as valuable to them as possible,” Sloan said. “Our students will be gaining the maximum amount of knowledge in our programs by training in our new facility and working with the latest technology. Learning from industry-leading instructors, they’ll be better prepared to step onto a jobsite and make an immediate impact. They can do more, earn more, and give their employers the confidence to take on larger, more complex projects.”
“It helps everyone. Employees advance, companies grow, and together, we help move Arkansas forward. What we’re building here, both figuratively and literally, is an educational model that drives economic growth, creates opportunity, and strengthens communities across the state.”
To date the Building Tomorrow campaign has raised more than $7.5 million which is making this vision a reality, but as Sloan quickly pointed out, the organization still needs help.
“Every contribution, whether from an individual, a company or an industry partner, brings us one step closer to ensuring that future generations of Arkansans have access to world-class training and lifelong careers in the skilled trades,” he said. “This is an investment not just in ACEF but in the future of our workforce and our state.”
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Angel Bahena
Angel Bahena, owner of Diamond State Plumbing
2011 ACEF Apprenticeship, Plumbing
Q How did you get interested in a skilled career?
A I started right out of high school. I only applied to one college, and when I didn’t get accepted, I took a trades job to save up some money. Once I did that, I saw what people could make doing this as a career. At that point, I pretty much said, “Well, hey, this probably makes more money than what I was trying to do in college.”
Q How was the apprenticeship coursework at ACEF?
A I thought it was pretty straightforward. The hardest part probably was the codes and formulas for huge commercial buildings that you have to know. Even if you don’t necessarily work in that scenario, you do have to have the knowledge of how to do the formulas and make sure everything’s working to code.
Q Now that you are a business owner, have you utilized ACEF for your own crew?
A I’ve already sent four guys through ACEF, and I just sent one who started this year. Finding good help is really hard, and so it’s good to have this option to make sure they get the right training. Plus, it’s affordable. They provide the hands-on training. They give you the books. Everything else is pretty much on you.
Q Looking back, what is the one thing that stands out to you about your ACEF experience?
A I think the brotherhood there, more than anything. Everybody is sharing their stories on a day-to-day basis of what they did today, and if someone had an issue, they would bring it up in class. Everybody pretty much chipped in to say how they’ve come up with a solution to that problem or whatever it may be.
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Billy Rouse, apprentice and founder of Lexicor (Photos by Chris Davis)
Billy Rouse, founder
Lexcor
Third-year ACEF apprentice, electrical
Q What made you want to pursue an electrical apprenticeship?
A My son was at Mississippi State, and after about three or four years, it just wasn’t working for him, so I said, “Listen, let’s just put it on pause,” and I pushed him to go and get a trade. That was the fall of 2020. Well, he missed too many days, so in the spring, I said, “Look, you’re going to get through this, and I’m going to help you,” so I enrolled in it the next year with him.
Q What have you gotten out of the training?
A I thought I could benefit from it, you know, understanding the codes and so forth myself. I’m a general contractor. I have a degree in construction management and a degree in civil engineering. I’ve done [Occupational Health and Safety Administration] training. I’m an OSHA instructor.
Q What does ACEF do particularly well in their curriculum or in how material is presented?
A They have a regimented, structured program, and it’s very well laid out. As far as the curriculum, I think it’s very good. They have a lab also, and we’ll go and we’ll work with wire relays, maybe bend pipe and wire, you know, work with switches and so forth.
Q You are still finishing up your coursework. Did your son finish the program?
A Malcolm did finish the program, and interestingly, when we were taking classes together, my daughter, Kaia, who has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science, started the electrical program last fall, and then my son Sage is in the HVAC program here, too, and my other son is studying to be a mechanical engineer at the University of Arkansas [in Fayetteville]. We’re pretty invested in construction, as you can tell.
