When Janah Rodriguez found herself without a job for the first time since she was a teenager, she didn’t initially worry. She had more than a decade of experience in medical office administration and had moved up the ladder going from working the front desk to becoming an office coordinator.
But things changed when she reached the five-month mark of being unemployed. She started to feel like her options were shrinking, she said.
She was 45, with four grown children and grandchildren, and for the first time she felt like she wasn’t moving forward in her career.
“I got hired at a pediatric office for the front desk again,” Rodriguez said. “Then I saw like a post for a workforce program offering medical coding, which I had always wanted to do… So I said, ‘Let me just try and see if I qualify,’ because I had just started this job but it was not really what I wanted to do.”
The workforce program was a San Antonio Ready to Work offering — the $200 million voter-approved workforce development program — through its partnership with Alamo Colleges District. After a few calls and visits with an advisor, she was enrolled in a program that would immediately lead her into a better paying job in the field she had once envisioned herself in.
To help simplify this connection for others like Rodriguez, Alamo Colleges District announced the creation of the Alamo Technical Institute last week, a hub intended to streamline access to workforce programs for both potential students and employers.
The institute will operate as the main access point, or a one-stop shop, for those seeking short-term credentials to either upskill, or enter a new field. The over-the-phone, virtual or in-person help connects people with success coaches, or advisors, available to guide applicants through skills assessment, career navigation and enrollment process.
“The intent is to provide an on-ramp wherever we have physical presence, and of course always an online presence, to short-term training for individuals,” said Alamo Colleges District Chancellor Mike Flores.
The move is part of the district’s mission to scale access to workforce training, align offerings to industry needs, and deliver measurable outcomes, officials said.
The institute involves partnerships with Ready to Work, Workforce Solutions Alamo, and Greater SATX Regional Economic Partnership, which help provide employment avenues, internship opportunities and training.
Flores said the creation of the Alamo Technical Institute did not require a new investment on part of the district, but a relocation, or reorganization, of existing resources to ease the process for individuals exploring these offerings, as well as employers seeking training for their staff.
“What we’ve done is we’ve organized ourselves in a way that provides seamless information to folks. So that they don’t have to go reach out to multiple parties for information,” Flores said.
The institute’s staff will be housed out of the district’s five education and training centers, Flores said. It will eventually expand to also have dedicated staff across the district’s five colleges — San Antonio College, St. Philip’s College, Palo Alto College, Northwest Vista College and Northeast Lakeview Colleges.
The institute also comes as a response to the need to help connect applicants with funding to pay for training opportunities that could lead to high-demand, high-wage jobs, Flores said, including the upcoming Workforce Pell federal aid. It’s also intended to be a simplified avenue for employers seeking training partners.
Alamo Colleges District is one of the region’s largest providers of Ready to Work-linked programs, with more than 5,000 individuals who have enrolled in certificate or training programs through the district, according to district reports.
This announcement was also coupled with the expansion of a few workforce training partnership programs.
The Texas Workforce Commission awarded two Skills Development Fund grants; One in the sum of $192,910 to Alamo Colleges District for the training of 151 existing employees of Toyotetsu Texas Inc., which manufactures automotive safety parts for Toyota Texas. And a second grant for $13,268 to upskill seven employees for John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc., a snack food company that employs more than 200 people in Selma.
“We’re really excited,” Flores said. “This is a way to ensure that we’re being responsive to employers but also to individuals that are looking for those short-term credentials that make them more competitive, and can also address economic mobility in our community.”
The San Antonio Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
