The Pima and Santa Cruz Tech Prep Consortium was founded in 1991 under the combined partnership of the Pima County Community College District (PCC) and area schools represented by Pima County Schools. The major objective has been to provide students with career-based, academically integrated programs in occupational areas for which the demand for employment has been substantiated. Since its inception, the focus of the Consortium has been on developing exemplary Tech Prep programs in all our schools. This focus provides students with high skill levels to better prepare them to enter the job market.

The Consortium represents all school districts in Pima and Santa Cruz Counties and one district in Pinal County. The area is diverse, economically, geographically and in ethnic make-up. The total population of both counties is over 900,000, over 10,500 sq. miles, and represents 17% of Arizona’s population. It is made up of 64% Anglo, 30% Hispanic in Pima County while these numbers are reversed in Santa Cruz County. Populations of other minority groups are all 3% or less. Child poverty is 24% and 36% in Pima and Santa Cruz Counties, respectively. The unemployment rate is equally inconsistent throughout the region, currently at fewer than 3% in the Tucson area and over 17% in the rural areas.
All public high schools in the Tucson, Marana, and Oro Valley area are included as well as high schools in the rural communities to include the towns of Ajo and Sells. High schools in Santa Cruz County include Nogales, Patagonia, and Rio Rico. Additionally, Mammoth-San Manuel Unified School District is a part of our consortium

The Consortium uses both demographic information and local resources, such as the Workforce Investment Board, the Workforce Investment Board Youth Council, the Greater Tucson Economic Council, the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Northern Pima County Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Economic Security, and the Tucson Business and Education Leadership Council. Through these groups, the consortium identifies employment trends and develops and implements solutions to better serve our youth as they move through school and into the labor market.