Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Group Advisory Effort Leads to PCC Building Inspection Degree

Photos and Story by James Hill

They came together, hammered out a curriculum and created from the ground up the new Portland Community College two-year degree in Building Inspection Technology. And the degree requirements dovetail those of the State Building Codes Division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services. Students with construction experience seeking a change will be glad to know the night program at PCC will start up this fall at the college’s Sylvania Campus.

The Building Inspection Technology Advisory Committee, led by program leader and PCC department chair Tom Gillespie, featured city building officials, building inspectors and plans examiners who came together with a common goal in mind: develop a program to train future building inspectors and plans examiners.

"The advisory committee provided tremendous input," Gillespie said. "That’s been the pleasure in putting this together. They were a competent group willing to put in the extra hours, otherwise, it would have been impossible to do this. I can’t give them enough credit."

For more than two years, committee members and Gillespie crafted what they believe will give graduates of the PCC Building Inspection Technology program a solid foundation of knowledge to build on as they enter careers in the building inspection and plans examiner fields.

"I would hope that we would get invigorated students who will be up-to-date both technically and with their people skills," said Dan Scotton, the City of Portland training coordinator in the Office of Planning and Development Review and an advisory board member. "I see (PCC) graduates being quality candidates who will be able to go to work in any metro area building department."

Graduates of this program will be required to amass 106 credit hours to obtain an associate’s of applied science degree. Within the degree requirements, students will receive instruction in a wide range of courses, including architectural courses, general education classes, building inspection instruction on the Uniform Building Code, classes on the International Mechanical Code and International One-and-Two-Family Dwelling Code, and an introductory course in physics. Students also have the option of obtaining one-year certificates in Structural inspection, Mechanical Inspection or Plans Examiner. A one-year certificate for One- and Two-Family Dwelling Code Combination Structural, Mechanical and Plans Examiner is also available.

Gillespie said about 95 percent of the classes will be held in the evening hours so people employed in the construction industry wanting to enhance their skills can work and go to school.

"This is a good program for people in the construction-related industries seeking advancement or entry into the inspections field," he said. Gillespie added that this degree program is one of only four community college building inspection degree programs available on the West Coast one of which is a well-known program at Chemeketa Community College in Salem.

The night time classes, the proximity to the Portland metro area job market and that the PCC students will likely have previous construction industry experience are the main differences between the Chemeketa and PCC programs, Scotton continued.

"That’s really the gap we hope the PCC program will fill," he said.

For more information on the Building Inspection Technology degree at Portland Community College, contact Tom Gillespie at 977-4166. The new program is located at the college’s Sylvania Campus, 12000 S.W. 49th Avenue in Portland.