Tuition-Free Alabama Trades Academy Backed by Key Community Support
SAHA classes began in January and offer hands-on training in carpentry, roofing, plumbing, electrical and HVAC.
As part of a statewide effort to expand trades education, the Home Builders Association of Metro Mobile (HBAMM) launched the South Alabama Homebuilding Academy (SAHA), an eight-week, tuition-free program to prepare adults for careers in residential construction.
The academy began in January and offers hands-on training in carpentry, roofing, plumbing, electrical and HVAC. SAHA follows the successful model of the North Alabama Homebuilding Academy (NAHA) in Huntsville, which launched in 2019 as the first program of the now Alabama Homebuilding Academy Network.
2025 HBAMM President Robert Collins and his wife, Katie, were inspired in Feb. 2025 while at the International Builders’ Show, where the Lowe’s Foundation presented its Gable Grant to NAHA.
“After seeing the [academy’s] vision at IBS, we visited NAHA that April to learn all we could because we really wanted to bring it to Mobile,” he said. “Several HBAMM members believed in the vision right away and stepped forward to help.”
As the first academy in the network, NAHA developed its own educational software and curriculum. Collins said that the Huntsville staff played a major role in the new launch by sharing these tools and training SAHA leadership to understand class scheduling, administrative necessities, how to engage prospective students and more.
The academies are supported by strong local partnerships, including the city of Mobile’s investment in SAHA, and statewide legislation that creates long-term funding. Alabama House Bill 335, signed May 2025, allows counties and municipalities to add a $20 fee on all residential building permit applications and donate those funds to local state-certified workforce development programs like SAHA and NAHA.
“The academies can open wherever people catch the vision and work to put the programs in place,” Collins said. “This model could really multiply, especially with NAHA’s guidance.”
Community support has even extended to providing space for the new academy. Goodwill Gulf Coast donated space in the Goodwill Gulf Coast Gordon Smith Center, where classes are now held two nights per week. The organization also provides participants with access to career counseling, job placement programs and other services they might need to prepare for careers in residential construction.
“This effort has opened our eyes to how many people and organizations locally are positioned and looking for ways to encourage growth in the skilled trades,” Collins said.
SAHA held the ribbon-cutting ceremony for its facility on Jan. 8, and students arrived two hours later for the first class. The program features six basic construction and safety classes before students choose one skilled trade to learn for the final five sessions. They celebrated the inaugural graduating class, 21 students, on March 5.
Collins said all future cohorts will have 25 students and that the program is already full for the year. As more than 300 additional people have expressed interest, SAHA is pursuing grants and additional funding to accommodate more students by adding daytime programming or more night sessions each week.
“NAHA has created a great model that can be replicated well,” he said. “I hope to see a long tenure of graduates coming back into the Alabama workforce.”