The Academy of Craft Training is starting its 11th year with nearly 1,000 students expected across four Alabama campuses — and hundreds of students already making the jump from the classroom into construction careers.
ACT began the 2026-27 school year last week, welcoming students to campuses in Birmingham, Decatur, Mobile and Montgomery. The program provides high school students with skilled-trade instruction and opportunities to gain industry experience before graduation.
The numbers from the past year show how that training is translating into opportunities for students.
ACT students completed 727 internships and logged more than 43,000 work hours, a 23.6% increase over the previous board update. Seniors participated in 942 contractor interviews and received 365 job offers, with 216 seniors moving directly into jobs with hiring contractors.
“The numbers tell a powerful story of momentum,” ACT Board Chairman Brad Avery said. “Our students are logging more hours, sitting for more interviews, and moving directly into careers in the construction industry. That is what a well-prepared, highly skilled workforce looks like, and it is being built right here in Alabama.”
The program is growing this year with the opening of ACT Central Alabama in Montgomery. The new campus is welcoming more than 200 students from Montgomery, Autauga, Elmore, Tallapoosa and Lowndes counties.
Meanwhile, ACT’s three returning campuses in Birmingham, Mobile and North Alabama are preparing to serve 782 students. With the Central Alabama students added, ACT expects statewide enrollment to approach or exceed 1,000.
Students will also have more training options this year. ACT is adding four programs: commercial construction, commercial electrical, HVACR and mechanical systems, and industrial metal fabrication.
The start of the school year also brought two soon-to-be members of the Alabama Legislature to ACT’s Birmingham campus.
State Sen.-elect Scott Ortis (R-Mountain Brook) and State Rep.-elect Lloyd Peeples (R-Vestavia Hills) toured the campus this week, meeting with students and instructors and seeing the training facilities firsthand.
“As we open four Academy of Craft Training campuses across the state this week and welcome students back for our eleventh year, there is nothing more valuable than having the leaders who will represent these communities see this work up close,” Stone Building Company President Justin Drummond said.
ACT operates as a public-private partnership between Alabama’s commercial construction industry and the state’s K-12 Career and Technical Education system.
Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama, which represents the state’s construction industry, says the industry supports 223,000 jobs and generates $20.1 billion in annual economic output and $13.5 billion in earnings.
Sherri Blevins is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at [email protected].
