SAN ANTONIO – The City of San Antonio’s highly-touted workforce training program got a slower start than anticipated in its first year.
Now, partway through its second year, job placement numbers aren’t quite reaching the “ambitious and aspirational” target city staff had set.
The Ready to Work program is aimed at helping participants from struggling San Antonio families get the necessary training to bring high-quality jobs in on-demand fields.
Voters gave the go-ahead to fund it with four years worth of sales tax dollars in November 2020, and the city finally announced enrollment opening in May 2022.
Nearly 5,000 people have enrolled in some type of training or degree program through Ready to Work, though only 724 have successfully completed that training so far.
Though the city aims to place 80% of those graduates in “quality jobs” within six months of graduation, it’s currently reporting a rate of 62%.
A city spokesman said the city knows it’s “an ambitious and aspirational target” and said its partners, ranging from employers to case managers guiding participants through the program, “are working diligently to improve participant employment outcomes.