Best Classes Tucson, AZ

Find & compare hands-on courses near Tucson or live online in coding, design, business, and more. We’ve chosen over 200 of the best tech courses from the top training providers to help you find the perfect fit.

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Tucson is located in Pima County, Arizona. The city has a population of about 540,000, but there are more than a million people in the entire Tucson area. It is the county seat and the second most populous city in the state. The University of Arizona, with more than 50,000 students, is located in Tucson and is a major employer. Aerospace and defence are important to this city’s economy. Government, education, and health services also employ a large number of people.

An Overview of Tucson Employment by Industry

In its March 2025 “Tucson Area Economic Summary, ” the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (the BLS) estimates employment numbers for major industry sectors in Tucson:

  • Government: employs 78,000 people
  • Education and health services: employs 72,000
  • Trade, transportation, and utilities: employs 70,000
  • Construction: employs 20,000
  • Manufacturing: employs 28,000
  • Information: employs 5,000
  • Financial activities: employs 17,000
  • Professional and business services: employs 44,000
  • Leisure and hospitality: employs 45,000

In addition to these core sectors, Tucson is home to several specialized industries that contribute significantly to the region’s economic identity and growth.

  • Aerospace and Defense: Aerospace and defense are a major part of the Tucson economy, and this city is one of the top locations in the country for these industries. On its “Growth Industries” page, the City of Tucson says, “The aerospace industry includes defense and space-related manufacturing, research and development, industrial technology, assembly, distribution, and warehousing.” According to Sun Corridor Inc., an organization that works to encourage job growth in the Tucson area, top employers are: Ascent Aviation Services, Bombardier Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace, MHI RJ Group, Meggitt, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Sargent Aerospace & Defense, Universal Avionics Systems, and World View Enterprises. Sun Corridor finds that there are more than 200 Tucson companies in aerospace and defense, and they employ more than 30,000 people.
  • Renewable Energy: Tucson is one of the sunniest cities in the country, making it an excellent location for solar energy development. The City of Tucson says, “The region has valuable resources for technology development, manufacturing and solar power generation.” The University of Arizona Science & Technology Park includes a Solar Zone. Sun Corridor says, “The Solar Zone is one of the largest multi-technology solar testing and evaluation sites in the United States.”
  • Healthcare and Bioscience: Top employers in health and bioscience in Tucson include Accelerate Diagnostics, Arizona Community Physicians, HTG Molecular, Kelpac Medical, La Frontera Center Inc., the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System, Sunquest, The Critical Path Institute, Vante BioPharm, and Xeridiem. Sun Corridor states, “Southern Arizona is becoming known as one of the nation’s most innovative bioscience centers.” Tucson’s many universities play a major role in advances within these fields.
  • Mining: The Tucson area has large copper reserves. According to Sun Corridor, it produces more than 60% of the country’s copper. The organization also finds that this industry pays more than jobs in the service sector. Employers include Caid Industries, Caterpillar, Epiroc, FL Smidth Krebs, Freeport-McMoran, Grupo México Asarco, and Hexagon Mining. 
  • Transportation: Tucson has a strong transportation infrastructure, is located near Mexico and a number of large ports, and has become a leader in transportation. Top employers include United Fresh, Union Pacific Railroad, Port of Tucson, and Chamberlain. Sun Corridor notes, “With over 150 transportation and logistics providers, Tucson area businesses can serve over 46 million people within a 500-mile radius and over 55 million people within a 1,000-mile radius.” According to the City of Tucson, employment in transportation and logistics has grown by 172% in the past five years.
  • Optics and Photonics: On its “Why Tucson?” page, the City of Tucson Economic Initiatives says, “Gaining notoriety as Optics Valley, Tucson is home to a high concentration of optics companies, as well as research activity tied to the University of Arizona and several astronomical observatories located in the mountains of Southern Arizona.” It reports that employment in this field grew 35% in the past five years. Major employers include Edmund Optics, Bruker Nano, and Photon Engineering.

Top Salaries in the Tucson Area

According to the BLS, the average hourly wage in Tucson is $28.60, which is lower than the national average of $31.48. The agency lists average hourly wages for a number of different types of industries in Tucson:

  • Management, $55
  • Business and finance, $37
  • Computer and mathematical, $48
  • Architecture and engineering, $49
  • Education, $29
  • Arts, design, and media, $29
  • Healthcare, $46
  • Office and administrative, $21
  • Construction, $25

Anticipated Job Market Growth in Tucson

Overall, Tucson’s job market is growing more slowly than the state; however, it is steadily adding jobs. Making Action Possible (MAP) for Southern Arizona is a project of the University of Arizona and provides numerous statistics about the Tucson economy. It finds that leisure and hospitality are generating the most new businesses in Tucson, responsible for about 22% of the total. Education and health services are next, generating about 19% of new businesses. Financial and business services account for 17% of growth; trade, transportation, and utilities for 14%; financial activity for 7%; and construction for 8%.

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Tucson Tech Topics

  • Design

    Graphic Design

    Graphic design is visual communication through artwork or combining images and text. Graphic designers create logos, ads, social media graphics, magazines, books, websites, apps, and more.

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    Web Design

    Web design combines elements of user experience design (how the website works), visual or user interface design (how the website looks), and coding (how the website is actually built and made to function properly). Some web designers touch on all three areas, while others focus on one specific skill. If you like to design or write code, there's a role for you in web design. With billions of unique websites and more being created every day, web designers continue to be in high demand.

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    Video Editing

    Video editing is about telling a cohesive story through combining different video clips, footage, and effects. Video editors are able to achieve this using programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, and Final Cut Pro.

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    Photoshop

    Adobe Photoshop is widely known as the best photo editing software for photographers and photo retouchers. It's also used by digital painters as well as graphic designers for creating a wide variety of designs such as social media graphics, web designs, app designs, graphics that will be animated in Adobe After Effects, and much more.

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    After Effects

    Adobe After Effects is the industry standard for video post-production, compositing, effects, and animation. It's one of the most important apps for motion designers and can be used for creating animations and videos for social media, YouTube, websites, TV, and movies.

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    UX Design

    User experience (UX) designers work on creating functional, meaningful, and enjoyable user experiences. UX design focuses on ease of use, navigation, and functionality of products (which are commonly digital products such as websites and apps).

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    Adobe

    Adobe Creative Cloud is a collection of industry-leading apps dedicated to creativity, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, and many more. Adobe Creative Cloud has what you need to create projects using photo editing, bitmap or vector illustration, digital design, animation, audio, augmented reality (AR), and more.

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    InDesign

    Adobe InDesign is the industry-leading layout design tool for print. Publishers of magazines, books, newspapers and other media rely on InDesign for page layouts and graphic design. InDesign can also be used to create digital documents such as PDFs and eBooks.

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    Premiere Pro

    Adobe Premiere Pro is the leading choice for video editing for TV, movies and the internet. It allows users to weave together video clips, graphics, and audio to produce professional grade video projects. It offers seamless integrations with Adobe Audition, After Effects, Photoshop and more.

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    Motion Graphics

    Motion graphics refers to animated graphic design. It blends together text, sound, motion, animation, and visual effects to communicate a message or tell a story.

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    Illustrator

    Adobe Illustrator is one of the most popular vector graphics applications. With seamless integrations across Adobe Creative Cloud, Illustrator is widely used by individuals and organizations to create resizable illustrations, design elements for videos and motion graphics, all through its powerful vector creation tools.

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  • Coding

    Web Development

    Web development encompasses all of the layers involved in building a website or web application. Websites are made up of two parts: the front-end and the back-end. Web development is used to create beautiful, interactive, and functional websites in nearly every industry.

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  • Data

    Data Science

    Data science is one of the fastest-growing career fields, with competitive salaries and nearly endless opportunities for specialization. Data science uses machine learning algorithms, statistics and other analytic tools to understand data.

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    Python

    Python is an easy-to-read, versatile object-oriented programming language. It is often compared to Java, Ruby, and Perl. It is available under an open-source license and is a favorite among programmers.

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    SQL

    SQL is short for Structured Query Language and refers to a programming language designed for relational databases. SQL organizes data and allows for queries and sorting of data.

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    Excel

    Microsoft Excel is the leading spreadsheet application and data analytics tool. With Excel, you can create charts, tables, automate workflow, track budgets and financials, and much more.

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    Data Analytics

    Data analytics is the process of analyzing raw data to draw conclusions. Data analytics are used to study all kinds of data, including productivity, production, profit/loss and much more.

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  • Digital Marketing

    SEO

    SEO is the practice of optimizing your pages and website for search engine ranking. With a variety of SEO strategies and techniques, you can boost your websites ranking to start bringing in organic traffic. In SEO classes, participants will learn the fundamental ideas of SEO and strategies to succeed in the search engines.

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  • Business

    Microsoft Office

    Microsoft Office is a suite of software with an integrated collection of applications for word processing, and creating spreadsheets, databases and other media. Many offices, schools and individuals use Microsoft Office.

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Training Locations in or Near Tucson

    Careers and Salaries

    Learn in-demand technology and computer skills to launch a new career in design, programming, marketing, business, and more. See the career pages for more information on required skills, tips for landing a job, typical day-to-day work, and where to find job postings.