Executive Summary
Houston’s economy is growing and evolving, creating new workforce demands across construction, energy, healthcare, aerospace, biotechnology, logistics and other critical industries. Meeting those demands requires more than educating students. It requires colleges, employers, government leaders and the AEC industry to work together to anticipate what skills and facilities the workforce will need next.
In this episode of the Building Better Podcast, hosts Bryan Benway and Marcus Wilkins sit down with Dr. Brenda Hellyer, Chancellor of San Jacinto College, to discuss workforce development, industry partnerships, higher education facilities and Houston’s continued growth.
The conversation reveals a straightforward philosophy behind San Jacinto College’s approach: listen to employers, understand students, bring the right partners to the table early and build programs and facilities that can adapt to what comes next.
For educators, public owners, AEC professionals and business leaders, the larger lesson is equally important: preparing the future workforce is a shared responsibility.
Community Colleges as Economic Development Engines
San Jacinto College has served the Houston region since 1960 and today operates five campuses. But Hellyer sees its role as extending well beyond the classroom.
The college’s responsibility, she explained, is to provide access to education while connecting that education directly to the careers the Houston region needs.
“Not only are we the opportunity for the community, but we’re that driver for economic development.”
That connection between education, workforce development and economic growth shapes how San Jacinto College evaluates its programs.
Instead of developing curriculum in isolation, the college works directly with employers and industry leaders to understand where workforce gaps exist and what students will need to succeed.
The process requires candid feedback.
“We ask for the good, bad and the ugly. And we want to know what’s working and what’s not.”
If graduates enter the workforce without the skills employers need, Hellyer said, both students and the region lose.
Industry Partnerships Keep Education Relevant
One of the strongest themes from the conversation was the importance of bringing industry into the educational process.
Houston employers understand where their industries are heading, what technology is changing and which skills are becoming more valuable. That makes them essential partners in developing effective workforce programs.
San Jacinto College’s Maritime Campus is one example. The college worked with the Port of Houston and industry employers to understand workforce needs and develop the facilities and curriculum necessary to address them.
Its petrochemical training facilities take that partnership even further.
Hellyer described the philosophy succinctly:
“It’s for industry, by industry.”
Industry representatives helped shape the facilities, equipment and curriculum. Professionals continue to participate in training and interact directly with students.
Similar collaboration is influencing emerging programs in areas such as biotechnology.
The result is a model in which education doesn’t simply respond to industry after workforce needs appear. Industry and education work together to anticipate them.
Houston’s Future Workforce Is Becoming More Diverse
Houston has long been defined by energy, but its economic future extends across a much broader range of industries.
Hellyer identified several sectors with significant workforce needs and growth potential, including energy, healthcare, construction, aerospace, biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturing, logistics and supply chain, and education.
Houston’s commercial aerospace sector, for example, is creating new opportunities around the Houston Spaceport. Biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturing are also emerging as areas where specialized training will become increasingly important.
Energy remains foundational, but the skills required by that industry will continue to evolve.
For San Jacinto College, the challenge is not simply identifying growing industries. It is determining when demand will materialize and how quickly educational programs can prepare students for those jobs.
Training too late creates workforce shortages.
Training too early can prepare students for jobs that don’t yet exist at sufficient scale.
That makes continuous communication among educators, employers and regional economic development organizations essential.
Workforce Facilities Must Be Designed for the Future
Preparing students for changing industries also creates a challenge for the architects, engineers and contractors building higher education facilities.
The building must serve today’s curriculum without becoming obsolete when that curriculum changes.
Hellyer emphasized that San Jacinto College brings multiple stakeholders into the planning process, including students, faculty, community members, architects, engineers, designers and general contractors.
“We need our partners at the table with us.”
The objective is to understand the true programming needs before major decisions are made.
That includes resisting the temptation to design around a short-term trend. Instead, facilities should provide enough flexibility to support different programs, technologies and teaching models over their useful life.
For AEC teams, that means asking questions beyond what a facility needs on opening day.
How easily can spaces change?
Can infrastructure accommodate future equipment?
What will specialized systems cost to maintain?
Will a visually impressive feature create an unnecessary long-term operating burden?
Those questions can have significant consequences for a public owner over decades of operation.
Early AEC Collaboration Creates Better Outcomes
San Jacinto College’s approach also reinforces the value of early contractor involvement and collaborative project delivery.
Hellyer discussed bringing architects, engineers and contractors together early and noted the college’s use of Construction Manager at Risk delivery on many projects.
Early collaboration allows the project team to work toward the same budget and program goals while evaluating constructability, flexibility, lifecycle costs and other considerations before decisions become expensive to change.
It also helps owners balance ambition with long-term responsibility.
A feature may look impressive during design, but if it creates excessive maintenance or operating costs, the owner will carry those consequences long after the construction team leaves.
For higher education and other public owners, lifecycle value should be part of the design conversation from the beginning.
Safety Requires Communication Across an Active Campus
Construction on an operating college campus presents another challenge: work often happens while students, faculty and visitors continue using adjacent facilities.
San Jacinto College serves traditional college students as well as high school students and people attending evening programs. That makes communication and planning essential when renovations, demolition or new construction occur nearby.
Hellyer described safety as a continuous process involving contractors, the college’s facilities team and leadership.
Contractor safety records are considered, active sites are regularly inspected, and project safety is reported to the board’s building committee.
The goal is not only preventing incidents, but learning from issues when they occur.
That mindset turns safety into a shared project responsibility rather than simply a contractor requirement.
Funding Workforce Development Requires Community Trust
Developing specialized educational programs and facilities requires significant investment.
San Jacinto College receives operating support through several sources, including local property taxes, tuition and fees, and state appropriations. Major capital projects are typically funded differently, including through general obligation bonds.
Hellyer pointed to the college’s 2015 bond program as an example of the connection between workforce needs and community investment. The $425 million bond supported facilities including the college’s petrochemical training center and received significant backing from regional industry and community organizations.
For Hellyer, maintaining that support requires demonstrating a return to the community.
That return isn’t measured only through a completed building.
It’s reflected in whether students gain useful skills, employers find the workforce they need and the regional economy becomes stronger.
The Promise Program Expands Access to Opportunity
One of the most significant initiatives discussed was the San Jacinto College Promise program.
The program gives qualifying graduating seniors within the college’s taxing district an opportunity to attend San Jacinto College without tuition costs while pursuing academic or workforce credentials.
Students must meet program requirements, including maintaining a 2.0 GPA, but there is no income cap or high school GPA requirement for entry.
Hellyer described it as:
“A promise for a promise.”
The college provides the resources. Students commit to performing academically.
Approximately 2,500 to 3,000 seniors participate each year, according to Hellyer, and about 70% of Promise students are first-generation college students.
Importantly, the program is supported through philanthropy rather than taxpayer or student dollars, with an endowment designed to sustain it into the future.
Hellyer believes its impact will extend well beyond individual students.
“The Promise program is going to be what’s going to change this region.”
By reducing financial barriers to education and credentials, the program has the potential to strengthen both social mobility and Houston’s long-term workforce pipeline.
Higher Education and Policymakers Need Ongoing Relationships
The conversation also explored the relationship between community colleges and Texas policymakers.
Hellyer credited state legislators with supporting significant changes to Texas’ community college funding model. At the same time, she emphasized two things colleges need as they respond to workforce demand: funding stability and flexibility.
Workforce needs can change faster than traditional institutional processes.
Community colleges therefore need enough flexibility to respond when employers identify new skills, technologies or workforce shortages.
Hellyer also emphasized that relationships with policymakers should be built long before a legislative session begins.
“There’s nothing better than having a legislator on your campus, meeting with your students, seeing firsthand, meeting with your employers.”
The broader leadership lesson applies beyond higher education: relationships are most valuable when they’re built continuously rather than only when an organization needs something.
Collaboration Extends Across Texas
Workforce development isn’t limited by city boundaries.
Texas community colleges collaborate on funding priorities, grants and statewide workforce initiatives. Colleges also need strong partnerships with four-year universities so students can transfer without unnecessarily losing credits.
That coordination matters as Texas competes for businesses and investment.
A company choosing Houston, San Antonio, Austin or Dallas-Fort Worth isn’t simply evaluating one institution. It is evaluating whether the region and state can provide the workforce necessary to support its long-term plans.
Education, economic development and infrastructure therefore become interconnected pieces of the same competitiveness strategy.
Major Takeaways for Education, Business and AEC Leaders
- Bring industry to the table early. Employers can help colleges identify future workforce needs and design more relevant programs.
- Design educational facilities for change. Flexible buildings can accommodate evolving technology, curriculum and workforce requirements.
- Engage AEC partners early. Architects, engineers and contractors can improve constructability, budgeting, lifecycle performance and long-term flexibility.
- Think beyond construction cost. Maintenance and operating expenses should influence design decisions from the beginning.
- Connect education to economic development. Workforce programs are most powerful when they create meaningful career opportunities while supporting regional employers.
- Expand pathways into education. Programs such as San Jacinto College Promise can reduce barriers while strengthening the future workforce pipeline.
- Build relationships continuously. Employers, educators, policymakers and community leaders are more effective when collaboration happens before an urgent need arises.
Building the Workforce Behind Houston’s Growth
Houston’s future will be shaped by more than the industries and infrastructure being built across the region.
It will also be shaped by whether enough people have the education and skills to operate, maintain and advance them.
That makes workforce development a challenge shared by colleges, employers, public agencies and the AEC industry.
San Jacinto College’s approach offers a useful model: listen to industry, expand access for students, bring partners together early and remain flexible enough to respond when the workforce changes.
For Houston—and for a rapidly growing Texas—the ability to connect education with industry may ultimately determine how successfully communities turn economic growth into long-term opportunity.
The Building Better Podcast is a podcast from Bartlett Cocke General Contractors and the Institute for Leadership in Capital Projects (I-LinCP) featuring conversations with leaders across Texas about construction, facilities, planning, development and the decisions shaping the built environment.
