AUSTIN, Texas —
Child care options are set to be incorporated in an infrastructure academy that will train skilled workforce members.
The city of Austin has partnered with Austin Community College (ACC) and several others to create the infrastructure academy, where they are training the next generation of construction workforce to help with major projects across the city like the Interstate 35 expansion and Project Connect.
The academy is working to remove barriers preventing people from finding careers. One of the biggest challenges is concerns about child care.
The academy said it recognizes child care can be expensive and hard to find and, for a lot of people, it's a roadblock stopping them from pursuing their goals.
Representatives from one of the partners, Workforce Solutions, said it is researching what people need as it plans what the program will look like.
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Workforce Solutions hope to provide scholarships to offset the costs, and it is also working with community providers to find good locations because its research shows people need child care options close to their work and home life.
"Infrastructure is not the only industry that is building jobs in our community. And so, there's a real word for talent now and in the future. And we want to see the people don't just get jobs, they can move into careers. So, to do that, we need to look at workers holistically and see how we can support them. And child care was top of the list," Workforce Solutions Capital Area CEO Tamara Atkinson said.
The company hopes the program will make a big difference for families and especially women.
"Only 14% of the current infrastructure workforce are women. Why aren't more women participating? One of the reasons is access to child care. So, we knew that if we want to break down barriers and have more women be able to enter this industry, we had to address the child care," Atkinson said.
Workforce Solutions is also working to provide care at nontraditional hours because infrastructure construction hours can be early in the day or late in the night.
ACC said it plans to operate the infrastructure academy out of its new Del Valle location once it's built – but it can't wait for that campus to be finished, so it's kicking things off at its Riverside campus, where there is already a foundation of classes.