Overview:

City and college leaders launched Dallas BUILDS, a workforce initiative tied to the $3 billion Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center expansion. Led by Dallas College, the program provides free construction training and connects residents across all 14 council districts to lucrative trade careers. With over 300 graduates already completed, the initiative aims to foster long-term economic stability and ensure locals build their own city.

Attendees listen as a speaker delivers remarks at the Dallas BUILDS launch. The workforce initiative serves residents across all 14 Dallas City Council districts.
Photo courtesy of Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas.

When Dallas residents asked whether people from their neighborhoods would get to work on the new convention center, they were asking who would benefit from one of the city’s biggest public investments. At Dallas College’s Bill J. Priest Center on Nov. 9, city and college leaders offered an answer: free construction training, industry credentials and a direct connection to contractors hiring for the project. District 3 Council Member Zarin D. Gracey and District 8 Council Member Lorie Blair spoke about what Dallas BUILDS can mean for Black and Brown Dallas residents, including a chance to earn industry credentials and get paid to help build their own city. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Maxie Johnson, who represents District 4 in Oak Cliff, also attended the launch advocating for the workforce investment.

The initiative, called Dallas BUILDS, ties the more than $3 billion Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas Master Plan expansion to a workforce effort serving residents in all 14 City Council districts. Dallas College is the lead education and training provider, working with the City of Dallas, Inspire Dallas, Trinity Alliance and community partners. Its job is to help residents learn a trade or build on the skills they already have, then connect that training to work they can pursue long after the convention center opens.

Councilman Maxine Johnson addresses attendees at the Dallas BUILDS launch, where organizers outlined how the city and Dallas College will work with contractors to match training with upcoming hiring needs. Photo courtesy of Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas.

The work is already underway. Rosa Fleming, who leads the city’s Convention and Event Services department, said 338 people had graduated from training through the initiative and another 75 students were in the pipeline before the end of the year. She said some graduates of a program run by the Regional Black Contractors Association’s Community Development Corporation were already working on demolition at the convention center site.

Dallas College and its partners are delivering training at locations including the Bill J. Priest Center, the Workforce Center at RedBird, the South Dallas Workforce Training Center and the Esperanza Center. Residents new to the trades can start with construction math, blueprint reading and safety training. Hands-on instruction includes electrical work, plumbing, welding and HVAC, with masonry and roofing also listed in the program materials. Experienced workers can pursue advanced credentials and training in construction technology or supervision. Evening, hybrid and bilingual options help make the program accessible to adults balancing work and family.

That approach builds on work DW covered in April for the college’s 60th anniversary. Dallas College had expanded health care apprenticeships and accelerated aviation maintenance training by working with employers to understand what skills they needed. Chancellor Justin Lonon also described how transportation and other student supports help people stay in school. Dallas BUILDS brings that same approach to construction, with courses closer to where residents live and training scheduled around the skills employers expect to need. We saw the groundwork for that effort in May at the BUILD the Workforce Development Summit at RedBird, where residents met employers and learned about apprenticeships and other routes into construction. Dallas BUILDS gives that work a major job site and a way to measure what happens after training.

Dallas College North Lake Campus President Dr. Rick W. Smith, CFRL, CCDP, far left, City of Dallas Workforce Czar Lynn McBee, third from left, and Dallas College Chancellor Justin Lonon, fourth from left, join other attendees for a photo at the Dallas BUILDS launch. Photo courtesy of Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas.

Several speakers credited Fleming with championing a program that could last beyond the expansion. She traced the work back to the city’s pledge to offer training to Dallas residents after voters approved the 2022 Proposition A hotel tax measure. At community meetings, she said, residents kept asking whether their neighbors would get hired, whether small and local contractors would get a fair shot, and whether the opportunities would last.

“We didn’t want a program that ends with a ribbon cutting,” Rosa Fleming

Fleming said subcontractors share hiring forecasts so training can line up with upcoming work. The program counts a placement when someone starts a paid job. Its materials also outline 90 days of case management to help participants stay employed. For local businesses, organizers described free customized training for existing employees. City leaders also discussed breaking up larger contracts into smaller pieces so more firms can compete for the work.

Lynn McBee, Dallas’ workforce development czar, recognized Fleming and the partners who brought employers and training providers together. McBee said the students she spoke with were thinking about career advancement and what it could mean for their families.

“When we train and hire local talent, we’re helping families build financial stability, we’re strengthening our neighborhoods,” McBee said.

Lonon announced $250,000 in funding from the Texas Workforce Commission for construction training. Dallas College will lead instruction, while Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas will help recruit and refer participants, provide workforce services and connect job seekers with contractors. Participants will pursue nationally recognized credentials they can take to other job sites.

The next generation of Dallas builders

Eugene Walker Jr., co-founder of EJ Smith Construction addresses attendees at the Nov. 9, 2026, launch of Dallas BUILDS at Dallas College’s Bill J. Priest Center. The initiative connects Dallas residents with skilled-trades training and construction job opportunities tied to the convention center expansion. Photo courtesy of Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas.

Eugene Walker Jr., co-founder of EJ Smith Construction and a member of the Trinity Alliance team, told students his father encouraged him to learn a trade because it would give him a way to support himself and his family. Walker combined that training with construction degrees and went on to run his own company. At the launch, he told the students he saw himself in them

“You are me,” Walker said. Later, he added, “You are the future. You are the future of our workforce.”

For Dallas College, the work will continue as the project moves from demolition to construction. Each phase will bring different hiring needs. The longer test will be whether the people who earn their first credentials and start paid jobs through Dallas BUILDS can use that experience to move up in the trades and help build the next project in their own city.