Ready to Work is eyeing AI training for San Antonio
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San Antonio's Ready to Work program could soon feature artificial intelligence training as officials gauge what skills local employers need.
Why it matters: "People on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum are the ones that typically get left behind when there's new emerging technologies that are starting to penetrate the labor force," Mike Ramsey, executive director of workforce development for the city, tells Axios.
How it works: Ramsey is waiting to hear more from employers to help shape the training. The city sent them a survey that will remain open through the end of May. Meetings will follow.
- But Ramsey thinks a variety of workers, both with and without college degrees, could use it.
Flashback: At the height of the pandemic in 2020, city voters approved using a one-eighth cent sales tax to create Ready to Work.
- The funding was intended to be temporary — it expired at the end of 2025, and the tax is now going toward VIA Metropolitan Transit to help fund its planned rapid bus routes.
Between the lines: Ready to Work is preparing to sunset by 2030 and will stop taking new applicants in 2029 as it uses up the last of the sales tax funding.
- But Ramsey says the city can add AI training without extra cost.
- If officials decide to continue AI workforce training beyond Ready to Work, the city would have to find a new funding source for it, Ramsey says.
By the numbers: Ready to Work isn't hitting its job placement goal after four years in operation.
- Officials have long held the goal of 80% of participants getting an approved job (defined as one that pays at least $15 per hour, with benefits, in a target field) within six months.
- That figure stood at 62% as of Friday, per the city's Ready to Work dashboard. 75% of participants find approved employment within a year.
- More than 6,800 people have completed training, and just over 5,000 people have found an approved job.
Zoom in: Ramsey thinks AI training could help the program meet the 80% goal.
- "If employers realize that participants coming out of the Ready to Work pipeline are more equipped with those [AI] skills than a typical applicant would be, then they'll move higher up on that hiring list," Ramsey says.
The big picture: Data suggests that AI is helping workers and replacing them, per a February report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
- Employment in computer systems design and related fields has fallen 5% since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, per the Dallas Fed.
- That's why jobs in skilled trades and advanced manufacturing — in demand in San Antonio but hard for companies to fill — will still be key to the city's future workforce, Ramsey says.
What's next: AI training could be available in Ready to Work within the year.