SAN ANTONIO — City leaders remain optimistic about the future of the Ready to Work program three years after voters approved the $200 million job placement initiative. But there are ongoing challenges the city and partners hope to address that improve the program’s efficiency for everyone involved.
“What you’re seeing now is the early stage of a tsunami of individuals strengthening our workforce, building that pipeline for employers to be able to fill their critical vacancies with,” said Mike Ramsey, executive director of the San Antonio Workforce Development Office.
Voters greenlit the Ready to Work program in 2020, which is being funded through a 1/8 cent sales tax through 2024. Income-eligible candidates for Ready to Work can enroll in various educational programs facilitated by contracted agencies such as Alamo Colleges District, Restore Education and Project QUEST.
Ready to Work has enrolled more than 3,000 people who are being trained for employment in high-demand industries, according to the city’s online dashboard. As of June 25, 2023, 162 participants have secured jobs where they’re making at least $25,000 more than before they took part in Ready to Work.
The median annual salary for those who’ve gained new employment is $37,370.
Ramsey said the number of pledged employers has grown to more than 300.
“The goal post has not moved. We’re still going to enroll over 28,000 people in education and training programs and have over 15,000 people placed in jobs. The pace that we achieve those goals has shifted a little bit,” Ramsey said. “We’re anticipating little bit higher numbers than our first year. It took a little bit longer for us to get ramped up and get started.”
The city is working with its partners to diversify ways of streamlining the intake process. According to the city’s dashboard more than 6,000 people have interviewed to take part in the program.
“Ongoing challenges, we got to continue move people through the intake process efficiently and we’ve go to continue to make sure that the training programs that individuals are aware of, the career fields that they may not know as much about such as those in advanced manufacturing,” Ramsey said.
Healthcare, truck-driving and fields field in information technologies, are some of the most popular occupations for the Ready to Work program.
“When we have education attainment levels as they are in some of our districts, that’s latent talent all in our community. What we prefer is to build that talent, deliver that talent, upscale that talent for our local employers,” said Dr. Sammi Morrill, associate vice chancellor of operations, economic and workforce development at Alamo Colleges District.
Morrill said Alamo Colleges District has achieved 81% in job placement within the first six months of enrollees’ completing their programs. On top of CDL trucking driving, healthcare is a prominent field of study that offers different avenues for job seekers who completed Ready to Work.
“In healthcare we see medical assistants as one of our top options, which is a great occupation to emphasize because it’s considered a lateral occupation,” Morrill said.
To learn more about Ready to Work, go here.