This story has been updated.
One by one, a dozen students stepped onto a stage at this season’s TX Fast Track graduation, earning recognition for completing an intensive training course to become certified maintenance technicians.
Family members and friends pointed their phones and cheered as each student received a certificate at a ceremony held Friday near the TX Fast Track office in Brooks.
And now with more funding provided by the county, more residents could take advantage of the free program.
Deborah Carter, Bexar County’s director of economic development, said the commissioner’s court allocated $2.4 million in its next budget to the program for 2026, allowing it to expand to another location on the West Side.
TX Fast Track is a workforce training program, putting students through an intensive, 10-week course where they learn hydraulics, pneumatics, electrical and mechanical skills to prepare for technician jobs. The program has been operating since 2020 and facilitates four cohorts each year.
“Through continued investments in economic and workforce development, such as our investment in Project Quest and the County’s TX Fast Track training program for advanced manufacturing, we are diversifying the county’s workforce while equipping families with skills to build generational wealth,” said Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai .
Michael Diaz and Shaun McGlynn, two of the program’s instructors, say that the goal is to make students apprentice-ready by teaching fundamental skills, as well as troubleshooting and problem-solving.
Thanks to support from City of San Antonio’s Ready to Work program, the course offers students wraparound services such as rental assistance, gas cards and health care assessments to help them complete the program, Carter said.
The program’s organizers have planned expanding to the Family Service Neighborhood Place, a West Side community center.
The goal is to create a close knit community students can succeed in and come back to throughout their careers, said McGlynn.
“We don’t care about your background. Everybody has a background. We want you to move forward in life,” he said.
The program pulls in a range of students. The cohort that graduated Friday included students between the age of 18 to 62. Carter said organizers are trying to bring in more female students. Only 13% of its 167 alumni are women.
TX Fast Track produced a 93% graduation rate and 83% of students were employed within 60 days at an average wage of $24.47 per hour, according to program officials.
Local companies are also getting involved. JCB’s director of operations in Texas, David Carver, congratulated the graduates on Friday. JCB is opening a million-square-foot factory on the South Side and will hire 30 such technicians as part of its planned 1,500-person workforce.
Carver said the company has already hired two technicians through TX Fast Track and is working with other local manufacturers to get students on-the-job training while JCB builds its factory over the next several years.
Building a bigger advanced manufacturing workforce has been a priority for local governments and economic boosters ever since Toyota began building its plant on the South Side in 2003.
“I talk to companies that want to bring their operations here,” Carter said. “One of their largest needs is a skilled workforce.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the upper age range of participants in the current cohort and did not make clear that the county-funded program receives financial support from the city for certain wraparound services.
