1,000 Scholarships now available to help local workers upskill for new Austin area jobs
AUSTIN, Texas — There's a new way to fatten your annual paycheck by thousands of dollars, and if you live in Travis County you could qualify. It's part of a larger effort to fill a variety of new local job openings with local workers.
New businesses are always welcome in Austin because they bring jobs. But if we don't have the particular kind of workers they need, Austin Mayor Steve Adler warns they'll bring those, too. He adds, "We don't want people from around the rest of the country coming in and filling the talent pipeline for us as much as we would like the people who already live here to be able to do that."
On Tuesday Workforce Solutions Capital Area launched their "Hire Local" plan aimed at closing the gap between the number of available jobs and the number of local workers who are qualified to fill those positions. CEO Tamara Atkinson explains, "We want companies to fill their jobs, but we want them to do it with Austin and Travis County residents, and the pathway to do that is what we announced today: A thousand new scholarships available for residents to get the skills for these good jobs."
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These scholarships will pay for training, and the worker's new skillset will get them a new better-paying jobs. Khalyl Woodson used his scholarship to kick-start his career in health care. He says, "Workforce Solutions was with me the entire way constantly communicating with me, sending me emails, telling me that you can do this, just the general support that I needed."
Besides health care, scholarships are being offered to train in information technology, skilled trades, and advanced manufacturing.
And just how much more would you make in these fields than you're making now? We asked the head of Workforce Solutions. She proudly answered, "We've seen that when we get involved helping someone with training they earn on average $30,000 more after training, so we know training makes a difference in people's overall earning potential."
