South San Antonio News

National League of Cities selects Ready to Work Program joins national infrastructure industry accelerator

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SAN ANTONIO  — The City of San Antonio has been selected to participate in the Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy, hosted by the National League of Cities and the Department of Labor. The Academy will help San Antonio develop innovative and scalable solutions that train workers to obtain quality, high-demand jobs in infrastructure, clean energy and advanced manufacturing. The job opportunities are made possible by new federal investments which focus on supporting residents from historically underserved and underrepresented communities. 

“San Antonio continues to innovate. The National League of Cities has recognized our initiatives like Ready to Work, SA Tomorrow, the Climate Ready Action and Adaptation Plan and our strong employer and community engagement as models for other cities to follow,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “The Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy affords San Antonio an opportunity to share best practices and to learn from other regional leaders.” 

Cities in the Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy will benefit from the opportunity to engage with National League of Cities, United States Department of Labor, other federal agencies, national leaders and their peer cities to:

•    Identify and convene employers and other stakeholders within a targeted subsector relating to infrastructure, clean energy, or advanced manufacturing.

•    Identify and address gaps and/or shortcomings in their education and workforce ecosystem, allowing them to develop new, or scale existing successful initiatives.

•    Implement strategies that ensure infrastructure, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing career opportunities are high-quality and support long term economic vitality in communities.

•    Be better positioned to address the multi-faceted structural issues many groups of workers face (including opportunity youth, women, workers of color, Indigenous workers, workers in rural communities, justice impacted individuals, veterans, parenting workers, etc.) in accessing good jobs, and connect such workers to equitable and meaningful postsecondary and workforce opportunities.

•    Learn how to effectively leverage and allocate funds and other resources to support their goals for addressing their workforce needs.

•    Strengthen policy and practice by intentionally building connections to supportive services for workers, and connecting to the care economy (including childcare, healthcare and mental health as key supports for workers)

As part of the Academy, the Mayor will lead a cross-sector partnership of public and private members, including City Departments, Alamo Colleges District, Avance, Chrysalis Ministries, CPS Energy, Family Service Association, Leonard Contracting, Liuna Local 1095, OCI Solar Power, Project Quest, Restore Education, SAWS, Texas A&M-San Antonio, Texas Women in Trades, VIA Metropolitan Transit, Workforce Solutions Alamo, YWCA, Zachry Construction, and Zachry Group, among others.

To learn more about Ready to Work visit ReadyToWorkSA.com. 

Original source can be found here.