Tempe Arizona Trade Schools, Colleges

 

Tempe, formerly known as Hayden’s Ferry, is a city of the state of Arizona, located in the Maricopa County in the United States. This inner suburb is situated in the East Valley of metropolitan Phoenix, bordered by Guadalupe, Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler and Scottsdale. It spreads on more than 40 square miles with a population of more than 175 thousand and over 63 thousand households and over 33 thousand families, while the Metro has a population of over 4.5 million. The name “Tempe” came from the Vale of Tempe located in Greece.

Tempe has a relatively dense and urbanized growth pattern in the northern area because of its location as well as the main campus of the Arizona State University being situated here. The southern areas of the city are less dense with predominantly homes consisting of single families and less crowded malls and office parks. The northern area of the city has the famous Salt River flowing which is dammed in 2 spots forming the Tempe Town Lake. The city is mostly flat aside from the Hayden Butte which is usually referred to as the A Mountain because of the “A” logo of the Arizona State University positioned on its southern side. This is close to the Sun Devil Stadium and Papago Park.

Tempe has a rich culture with involvement in arts, media, sports and other activities. The city hosts the Public Art program which brings together artists and designers to project temporary as well as permanent public art projects. The Cultural Services Division of Tempe has commissioned over fifty projects in the last 3 decades. Over sixty art pieces under private ownership has been made open to the public via the contribution of the Art in Private Development ordinance. The city has a flourishing alternative music culture as well, which boomed especially since the 1980s, giving birth to well-known acts including Meat Puppets, The Refreshments, Hans Olson and so on.

There are several tourist attractions in Tempe, making it a favorable spot for tourists round the year. Events such as Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon & ½ Marathon makes this city an exciting one to be in. There are also places like Arizona Mills, Tempe Town Lake, Tempe Marketplace and Mill Avenue that one can visit. Mill Ave, the prominent bar district, has many bars and eateries which tend to attract mostly the university students. For the ones looking for a more entertaining as well as relaxing time, there is the Downtown Tempe packed with hundreds of eateries, clubs and shops for all kinds of needs. The city has the headquarters and training facility of the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League. The Arizona State University Sun Devils participate in a number of sports including basketball, baseball and football. In addition, Tempe hosts the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl at the Sun Devil Stadium. The city is also proud of its Arizona Combat Sports which is a training institute for mixed martial arts. Several outdoor and recreation activities are available in the city, especially focusing on the publicly accessible lake, which attracts more than 2.7 million people, for sightseeing, climbing, hiking, biking, golf and many more.

Top Industries in Tempe, AZ

 

Tempe has over 362 thousand businesses with fewer than 10 employees, more than 107 thousand entities with 10 to 50 employees, over 25 thousand companies with 50 to 250 employees and more than 4 thousand organizations with over 250 employees. The large number of companies with less than 10 employees shows that there exists a healthy level of growing entrepreneurship in the city. Being in the core of the Phoenix metropolitan area helps Tempe to attract and retain robust businesses for a long time due to the geographic advantage and freeways surrounding the city which offers easy and swift access to the Sky Harbor International Airport. The city has a huge number of advanced technology companies compared to the entire state. It also has a thriving industrial area with 2 zip codes representing the maximum concentration of firms in Arizona. Despite having less than 4% of the population of Arizona, the city boasts over 15% of the high tech firms of the state.

There is a Fortune 500 organization with its headquarters and executive office based in Tempe – the Insight Enterprises. Other major companies located in this city are Fulton Homes, LifeLock, Mobile Mini, Limelight Networks, First Solar and Circle K. The famous ice cream maker of the world, Cold Stone Creamery, also had its headquarters originally based in Tempe and the prime office is still located currently in S McClintock Drive in the city. The city is also the birthplace of the first and biggest campus of the Arizona State University which was once a host of the Fiesta Bowl before it was shifted to the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. Fiesta Bowl Block Party is still hosted by Tempe on New Year’s Eve which is one of the biggest New Year’s Eve parties of the country, including national and local bands performing.

Tempe also has the regional headquarters of Edward Jones Investments and Phoenix office of China Airlines. A number of well-known performance venues are located in this city such as Tempe Center for the Arts and Gammage Auditorium. Gammage Auditorium was the location where 3 Presidential debates were held in 2004. The Sun Devil Stadium witnessed the Super Bowl XXX. Arizona Mills, which is one of the biggest shopping markets of the state, is situated close to the border with Guadalupe. The first IKEA brand of Arizona is also located in the city, close to the southern area. The city also has the Tempe Marketplace which is a gigantic open air mall situated southeast of the Tempe Town Lake, with live music along with laser and water shows.

A variety of manufacturers and wholesalers are present in Tempe such as Gummow Manufacturing which specializes in handcrafted wholesale Jewelry of Native America. There is the Mill Avenue which is situated west of Hayden Butte. It is an entertainment and shopping hub, famous with students and pedestrians. The development of Tempe Town Lake has given way to commercial and high rise establishments which soon altered the cityscape of the shopping area and downtown city skyline. Tempe has over a hundred office complexes and developments, including several business parks such as Papago Park Center, Fountainhead Corporate Center and Arizona State University Research Park, which is a huge park spreading across 324 acres, with 3 lakes, 6 miles of jogging trails, tennis courts and picnic spots.

 

Job Markets & Top Employers in Tempe

 

Tempe not only has favorable geographic location but also a favorable tax structure as well as a proactive approach to business growth. All of these together give birth to a perfect environment for companies to start, sustain and thrive. The largest employers of the city are the Arizona State University with more than 11 thousand employees, Maricopa County Community College District with over 4.6 thousand employees, Salt River Project with more than 4.3 thousand employees, Safeway with over 3.9 thousand employees, Wells Fargo with more than 3.5 thousand employees, Freescale Semiconductor with around 3 thousand employees, Honeywell Aerospace with around 3 thousand employees, Kyrene School District with over 2.4 thousand employees, JPMorgan Chase with more than 2.3 thousand employees and US Airways with more than 1.8 thousand employees.

The employment scene in the city is strong with a diverse economy consisting of more than 750 manufacturing companies and 200 high tech firms. With a number of growing industries such as financial and business services, bio technology and real estate market, Tempe is an attractive zone for many job seekers. The median income for an average household in Tempe is around $42 thousand while the median income for a family is around $55 thousand. The per capita income for Tempe is over $22 thousand. Big brands with their presence in Tempe include Chase Manhattan Bank, State Farm Insurance, Insight Enterprises Inc, Motorola, Conoco Phillips, Medtronic MicroElectronics Center and many more.

Tempe has grown to become more than merely a college town. Quickly becoming a lucrative destination for a number of top employers of the country as well as a rewarding venture for potential firms of all sizes and types, Tempe continues to bring in bigger brand names within its borders. It has one of the most attractive commercial office spaces in the state which has a vacancy rate in its downtown of around 7%. Tempe has become an ideal business spot due to the modern, multifaceted, urban appeal of downtown along with steel and glass high rise developments near to the historically rich establishments, enriched by the robust talent from the famous universities such as Arizona State University and others. Tech firms and financial service companies close to the lakefront have the sought after commercial office space in Arizona. In fact, over 40 thousand employees work just within a mile of the Tempe Town Lake which keeps increasingly quite rapidly.

The workforce of Tempe, particularly those working and those interested to work in the tech sector, are gradually looking for alternative transportation modes for increased convenience and chances to be more and more sustainably active. The transportation system of the city has more than 175 miles of paths, light rail, express bus routes, and neighborhood circulator shuttles. With great employment opportunities, various transportation means, increasing recreational activities offered, and an affordable cost of living, Tempe continues to attract people seeking a growing career and balanced life.

Colleges & Universities

 

Several school districts are present in Tempe, including Tempe Elementary School District, Tempe Union High School District, Kyrene School District, Scottsdale Unified School District and Mesa Public Schools. The city also has one of the major universities of Arizona which is the Arizona State University. There is also the headquarters of the Rio Salado Community College and administrative offices of the Maricopa County Community College District as well as many career and trade schools such as Brookline College, Lamson Junior College, University of Phoenix, Bryan University and so on.

The Arizona State University, established in 1885, is a public metropolitan research university which is commonly known as ASU. It was established as the Territorial Normal School in 1885, to be known as Arizona Territorial Normal School in 1889, Arizona Normal School in 1896, Normal School of Arizona in 1899, Tempe Normal School in 1901, Tempe State Teachers College in 1925, Arizona State Teachers College in 1929, Arizona State College in 1945 and eventually Arizona State University since 1958. This university has 5 campuses across Phoenix, Arizona as well as 4 regional learning centers all over the state. The university portrays itself as – one university in many places – deeming each campus to be concentrated on different aspects of the university mission. For instance, Tempe Campus focuses on research and graduate school, Polytechnic Campus emphasizes on technological and professional programs, West Campus concentrates on liberal arts and interdisciplinary programs and Downtown Campus emphasizes on direct urban and public programs. The university offers more than 250 majors for undergraduate students and over 100 graduate programs, which are divided into sixteen schools and colleges across six campuses.

The ASU is ranked in the first position as the most innovative school in USA for 2 years in a row by the US News & World Report. The university continues to be the biggest public university in the country in terms of enrollment with more than 82 thousand students, of which over 67 thousand are undergraduate students and more than 15 thousand are graduate students. More than 8 thousand of these students are international students. Not only in terms of enrollment, ASU is also well known for its massive research activities. It has acquired the prestigious positions among the top research universities in the country on the basis of research innovation, development, patent, proposals and output. It is one of the most successful universities of the country in forming start up organizations via research. The students of ASU participate in 25 university sports. The Arizona State Sun Devils have proudly won 23 NCAA championships as the members of the Pac 12 Conference. The university also has a number of student organizations, over one thousand registered ones. This portrays how diverse the student body of ASU is. The infrastructure of the university is revamped and enlarged on a continuous basis because of the growing student population. The university also has an entirely online version – ASU Online – which provides over a hundred undergraduate and graduate degree programs, holding the same accreditation as that of the conventional face to face programs. The online university has over 7 thousand students enrolled.

 

The University of Phoenix is another major American university in Tempe which has been established in 1976. With the motto “We Rise”, this is an institution of higher learning with more than 16 thousand academic staff and over 9 thousand administrative staff, educating and assisting over 142 thousand students. The university offers more than a hundred degree programs at different levels, including bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree. The university specializes in online programs where the students are able to utilize tutoring and social centers, and have access to online resources including electronic library and textbooks. The University of Phoenix has around 91 campuses but plans to reduce the number soon. The university offers a number of degree programs via schools and colleges such as school of business, college of education, college of social sciences, school of nursing and college of information systems and technology.

Tempe is also the base town of Rio Salado College which is a community college established in 1978 as one of the Maricopa Community Colleges. With more than 60 thousand students and accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the college has its headquarters in Tempe. The college offered the first of its online programs in 1996 and modified most of its programs to the online version within a decade. The college is thus deemed to be one of the top institutions in higher education innovation and remote learning.