Chris Roth walked out of high school at 15 back in 1985 and spent the next four decades in Nevada's skilled trades industry. In April 2026, he bought a stake in Quality Training Center, a 32-year-old Las Vegas trade school, betting that a condensed, employer-focused training model can help close a widening gap between what local contractors need and what schools are actually producing.
Roth is a contractor, business owner, entrepreneur, author and teacher, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He told the paper that every contractor he personally talks to is hiring, a claim that lines up with what Quality Training Center found when it consulted with primary contractors about workforce gaps in the region. The school, founded in 1994 and owned by Lonny Snowden, offers instruction in HVAC, commercial refrigeration and electrical work.
Roth and Snowden launched what the Review-Journal describes as the first dedicated business-to-business, contractor-centric program in Las Vegas. The new offering focuses on placement rates, retention rates and students' billable performance rather than the accreditation numbers, enrollment figures and graduation rates that traditional trade schools tend to emphasize, per the same report.
A Hands-On Lab Built for Real Breakdowns
Quality Training Center runs a 600-square-foot simulated home skills lab in Las Vegas, complete with active electrical panels and HVAC units, so students troubleshoot conditions they will actually encounter on the job, according to a video the school posted on Facebook. Core HVAC and electrical instruction is condensed into 12-week courses, and the school serves as a certified testing site for the federal EPA Section 608 refrigerant license, a credential mandated under federal law for anyone who handles refrigerants.
The school also holds official approval from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, meaning transitioning military members in Southern Nevada can apply GI Bill benefits toward its training. That veteran pipeline matters in a region where trade employers are competing hard for entry-level workers as experienced technicians age out of the field; the Review-Journal reports the average electrician or HVAC technician is now in their mid-to-late 50s.
Why Roth Says He Owes This to a Teacher
Roth frames his investment in Quality Training Center as a continuation of his own high school teacher's legacy — the same teacher who once worked for the College of Southern Nevada and the Clark County School District before founding the trade school. Roth said teaching requires genuinely learning a subject in order to teach it, and he has described himself as wired as a teacher, calling instruction the best part of his career, per the Review-Journal.
He argues that trades are a viable and rewarding career option, pushing back against college-only messaging that Quality Training Center believes has reduced the number of people entering skilled trades as high school shop classes have largely disappeared. Trade training, the school contends, can let people start earning income in months rather than years, while helping some avoid college debt altogether.
The Numbers Behind Nevada's Labor Crunch
The demand crunch is not just anecdotal. Department of Labor data cited by The Refrigeration School, Inc. projected Nevada's demand for licensed electricians would grow 31.6% between 2018 and 2028 — the highest percentage growth rate of any state in the country. Nationally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects roughly 40,100 HVAC technician job openings every year through 2034, driven largely by retirements, according to HireAligned.
Federal wage data published in May 2026 puts the national median annual wage for electricians at $63,190, with top-earning specialized commercial and industrial electricians clearing $108,500, according to figures compiled by the Contractor Training Center. Industry reporting has also pointed to a newer pressure on the labor pool: massive investment in artificial intelligence data center construction is pulling electricians and HVAC technicians into higher-paying industrial projects, a dynamic Hoodline previously reported is straining trade talent well beyond Nevada.
Short Courses Versus the Traditional Path
Quality Training Center's 12-week model stands in contrast to the public track offered by the College of Southern Nevada, which runs accredited HVAC programs ranging from an 18.5-credit entry certificate to a 60-credit Associate of Applied Science degree, typically taking six to 24 months to complete, according to Career Karma. Whichever path a technician takes, advancing to run their own HVAC or electrical business in Nevada still requires a license from the Nevada State Contractors Board, which requires qualifying trade personnel to pass technical trade and business law exams, per ServiceTitan.
Public construction work adds another layer of regulation: under Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 338, contractors on public works projects must pay prevailing wage rates that include mandatory hourly contributions to independent apprenticeship training programs, according to Workyard. Quality Training Center hopes its contractor-centric model becomes one other schools copy, aiming to build a student pipeline that meets the workforce gaps Nevada's HVAC, electrical and refrigeration industries are facing as demand continues to outpace supply.
