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The San Antonio City Council voted to use $5.8 million to support two different job training programs under the SA Ready to Work (RTW) initiative.
The Incumbent Worker Training (IWT) and On-the-Job Training (OJT) programs pay companies to train their own workers for higher-skill positions at the same company.
OJT is for newly hired employees or those who have been hired within the last six months, and IWT is for workers who have been at a company for longer than six months.
A phase one pilot version of the programs was considered successful, with a 91% retention rate for the 470 workers at 28 companies who completed OJT and IWT training. The average wage for OJT employees was $22.15 per hour, and the average wage for IWT employees was $21.21 per hour.
The $5.8 million will be split among 75 companies and involve more than 2,500 workers. The majority of awards went to small businesses, but most involved employees work at larger companies. For any company to be eligible to receive the funds, they must have a pay floor of $20 per hour for OJT and IWT workers.
San Antonio Workforce Development Office Executive Director Mike Ramsey said the programs are designed to get RTW graduates into jobs and ensure city dollars are serving residents.
“It's going to help our partners to make sure that those participants who've done their education and training and need that experience can get their foot in the door,” he said. “And it's a wage reimbursement program, meaning that there's no dollars going out up front. These dollars are reimbursed to the employer after they've made those hires.”
All 1,366 OJT workers supported through the new funding will be RTW graduates.
District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez said he was concerned about the low concentration of employers and jobs in his district.
“Out of 103 of the businesses, seven of them are in District 2,” he said. “That makes for 6.8%. And out of the 2516 participants, 90 of those jobs are in District 2, which is about 3.5%. And so I think what that says to me is that we need to be a little bit more intentional about the outreach.”
Ramsey said he agreed that more needed to be done to involve District 2 employers and residents.
He also said that once the training begins, the city will receive monthly updates from the employers about how workers are doing, their pay levels, retention rates, and other relevant data. That job tracking goes on for 12 months after training ends.
The $5.8 million will come from the Ready to Work sales tax fund.
