The Austin Infrastructure Academy for workforce development is coming to fruition, with City Council Thursday approving a $5 million, one-year contract with Workforce Solutions Capital Area to start and manage the new program. The contract includes child-care services and job placement assistance for mobility- and infrastructure-related positions.
Austin Water and Austin Energy will fund the contract from their 2024-2025 operating budgets, with Austin Water paying most of the cost, on the theory that the academy will turn out workers for the utilities.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson proposed the academy in February, citing the need for thousands of new workers to build the approximately $25 billion in projects in the city's pipeline — including a 10-mile light rail route, a new concourse at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, and the expansion of I-35 through the city's center.
In March, the council passed a resolution directing the city manager to "develop and implement a program to fund and support workforce development and to maximize the City's ability to receive federal funding for workforce development.” The resolution describes the academy as a “one-of-a-kind public-private infrastructure network that integrates recruitment, a comprehensive training hub, childcare support, and placement services to connect local people to career pathways in infrastructure development.”
The academy, currently at the Austin Community College Riverside campus, will eventually move to ACC’s Southeast Travis County campus in development.
The academy will focus on skilled trade such as electrical work, plumbing, and carpentry and include training for CapMetro transit drivers.
The city aims to increase the local workforce capacity 81 percent by 2040, with the goal of training and increasing the skills of 4,000 people a year to contribute to the 10,000 workers a year needed for current and planned projects, according to a study by consultant Civic Solutions Partnership,
