Austin Infrastructure Academy

Workforce Solutions Capital Area (WFSCA) will lead the founding of the new institution and serve as the Academy administrator. WFSCA is the state designated organization responsible for the data-driven planning, oversight, and evaluation of workforce development activities in Austin-Travis County. The Infrastructure Academy is aligned in our mission to help connect local people to the most in-demand industries with quality jobs. We are honored to serve as the hub for the Academy.

Workforce Solutions Capital Area will serve as the administrator, while Austin Community College will dedicate a physical space for the academy on their new campus in Southeast Travis County. Access to the academy’s services is already being supported by Austin Community College at their Riverside Campus.

The programs will include those in construction, skilled trades, fleet maintenance and repair, frontline mobility and operations and supervision. These are the five occupational groups we saw high-demand and career growth for in our study and conversations with stakeholders. The Academy will work closely with our community partners to scale existing programs in these key areas.

We will spend the next several months in the design phase, which is crucial for establishing a successful recruitment and retainment strategy. We understand that even the deepest wells of talent will be spread thin and that we need to tap into nontraditional talent pools if we are going to meet the current demand. For example, women only make up 14% of greater Austin’s mobility and infrastructure industry; if the region can increase the share of women in these roles to their share in the overall regional economy, that would cover 41% of the total projected demand for new workers. Another area we know we need to focus on is the K-12 space and raising awareness at this level so that we are attracting younger talent to these roles. WFS has career and education outreach specialists in the middle and high schools, helping us to reach this population. We also have a priority action group that is focused on developing a marketing strategy for not only attracting talent to the industry, but also working to retain them in the industry, and we will continue to build on that as we design and execute on the Academy.

This is a question that will be more fully explored during the design phase. That said, in speaking to our mission, we equip workers with the skills they need to succeed, regardless of curriculum. Our impact data shows that when individuals complete training through WFSCA, their annual wages increase by an average of $30K. We are demand driven in that we help connect workers to skills that match what employers are looking for in their workforce, and ultimately the framework of the Infrastructure Academy will help solidify that skills match between the job seeker and employer.

Various wrap around services will be explored, such as childcare and transportation. We have identified these two as key barriers for the infrastructure workforce, and ensuring end-to-end workforce development services is crucial to growing our workforce. Workforce Solutions Capital Area is Austin/Travis County’s designated intergovernmental workforce development authority, providing critical job seeker supports, including subsidized childcare.

The Infrastructure Academy will in part be funded from existing money. In August 2024, the Austin City Council adopted a $5.9 billon budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 that supports community-focused investments, including $5 million to launch the Austin Infrastructure Academy. In October 2024, the Aust City Council approved an interlocal contract with Workforce Solutions Capital Area for a 12-month period to support the implementation of the Austin Infrastructure Academy. This investment directs the state’s designated organization for data-driven workforce planning, oversight and evaluation of Austin-Travis County to provide workforce training, childcare services and job placement assistance for positions in the mobility and infrastructure sector.

The Austin Infrastructure Academy design plan is structured to work with the existing Leadership Group (Chaired by Mayor Watson and County Judge Brown) and the successful Sector Partnership, as well as the newly created Design Team, to provide leadership for the Academy design, understand current and future training capacities, develop cohesive training funding and programming and develop the role that community-based organizations can play in building a robust pipeline to meet the workforce needs.

Engaging with employers, the goal is to 1) document construction and skilled trades needs for the next 12-24 months, 2) learn what jobs creators consider quality training, 3) understand the training that job creators provide in-house and what is needed from the training community and 4) explore how job creators can sponsor or fund the Academy.

Early insights include:

• A high share of workforce is coming from outside of Austin (traveling workforce).
• Employers have a preference for quality over quantity for training and job readiness.
• Supervisory training is a big need.
• Soft skills training is important.
• Employers need information from Project Sponsors around changes in schedule, delays, pauses so that they can better forecast workforce needs.
• The private sector wants to be more engaged in training.

Early insights include:

• Training providers operate independently of each other leading to some duplication in trainings.
• Barriers to training participation or access include child care, transportation, and language literacy.
• Recruitment relies heavily on word of mouth. Overall, providers find it difficult to attract participants.
• Limited resources, space, and qualified instructors make scaling difficult.
• There is no standard evaluation criteria across programs, and the tracking of long-term outcomes could be improved.
• Highly specialized training programs have stronger industry ties for job placements than broader programs.

Early insights include:

• Barriers to workforce training – CBOs continue to identify child care and transportation and needs.
• Below livable wages continue to impact affordability for individuals.
• Collaboration with Workforce Training providers is needed to ensure integrated support services.
• The opportunity for Earn and Learn would help address some of the challenges associated with completing training.
• Connection to employers is critical and there are challenges in ensuring consistent job placement.