Workforce Solutions Capital Area is hosting a Mobility & Infrastructure Hiring Event on Dec. 11 at the organization’s branch on North Interstate 35. The event offers the chance to explore career paths in the rapidly growing transportation industry as well as major infrastructure projects needed to complete multibillion-dollar efforts such as Project Connect, and the expansion of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Category: Mobility, Infrastructure & Skilled Trades
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How local leaders in Austin and beyond are using ‘infrastructure academies’ to address their workforce needs
Building off a 2018 Brookings report that profiled the newly launched DC Infrastructure Academy, this piece aims to further contextualize and demystify what these academies are attempting to do by focusing on a new example in Austin, Texas.
The details matter for how these academies are structured, who is involved in their creation, and the extent to which they are even addressing these workforce gaps. But Austin’s infrastructure academy is not just an ad hoc experiment; through its ongoing design and implementation, it can help inform how other regional leaders may consider launching similar approaches.
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Vocational skills center for homeless opens at Esperanza Community
The Other Ones Foundation, or TOOF, cut the ribbon on a vocational skills center that will serve the homeless population in Austin.
The John Paul DeJoria Vocational Skills Center opened Friday at the Esperanza Community. Its goal is to “host a new approach to homelessness services” by offering vocational training and services, according to a joint release from TOOF and JP’s Peace, Love & Happiness Foundation.
According to TOOF, the services offered at the vocational center are some of the fastest-growing and high-paying trades, as identified by the Workforce Solutions Capital Area (WFSCA).
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Council OKs contract for new academy to train ‘workforce of the future’
City Council on Thursday approved a $5 million contract with Workforce Solutions Capital Area to start and manage the Austin Infrastructure Academy for 12 months. In addition to job training, the contract with Workforce Solutions includes the provision of child care services and job placement assistance for mobility and infrastructure related positions. Council approved the contract unanimously with Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison absent.
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City Council approves food plan, cadet housing study, construction contract, more items
Austin City Council held a meeting Thursday to go over multiple items focused on various aspects of city improvements.
The City Council also approved an interlocal contract with Workforce Solutions Capital Area to create the Austin Infrastructure Academy. The Academy will provide workforce training, and childcare services, plus job placement assistance for Austinites in construction, skilled trades, and operations.
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City approves $5M to bolster planned Austin Infrastructure Academy
The yet-to-open Austin Infrastructure Academy just received a $5 million boost from the city.
The funding — which will be overseen by Workforce Solutions Capital Area and go towards workforce training, childcare services and job placement assistance — was approved by the City Council during its Oct. 10 meeting.
In March, the council directed city staff to lay groundwork for a program to bolster workforce development in the city, which resulted in the Austin Infrastructure Academy.
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Austin Community College to offer free job training to some unhoused individuals
Around two dozen people experiencing homelessness will soon have the opportunity to become certified in heating and air conditioning maintenance through free training offered by Austin Community College (ACC).
The training is the result of a partnership between ACC and Urban Alchemy, the nonprofit that manages the ARCH and 8th Street shelters. Twenty-five people living at those shelters will be able to participate in the HVAC training program.
According to Urban Alchemy, two representatives for ACC approached the ARCH eight months ago to start the program. After much collaboration between the shelter, Workforce Solutions and ACC, the free program is expected to launch this month.
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Pflugerville Public Library launches new online platform for skilled trades industry
There are thousands of jobs in fields like construction, transportation and utilities that need to be filled in Central Texas.
Pflugerville Public Library hopes to chip away at that number through its new online platform called Blue Career.
According to Workforce Solutions Capital Area, this area will need about 10,000 more workers annually to deliver on various projects in the works.
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At Esperanza, ACC will provide crucial step out of homelessness: Job training
Not far from the trucks rumbling down U.S. 183, in front of the tidy rows of colorful cabins that provide shelter for the present, a tall blue building at the gateway to the Esperanza Community stands for something else.
The future.
Next month, the first 30 students will file into this building, all Esperanza residents eager to learn well-paying trade skills that will be their path out of homelessness. Half will pursue certification as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, or HVAC, technicians. The other half will pursue certification as auto mechanics.
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US Conference of Mayors Supports Local Workforce Development Efforts and the Austin Infrastructure Academy
The United States Conference of Mayors passed a resolution supporting the implementation of workforce development programs for infrastructure projects in cities and towns across the country similar to the Austin Infrastructure Academy. It further resolves that these programs shall serve as a training hub contributing to community-based and union-based training programs designed to support real-time needs identified by both job creators and job seekers.