Tamara Atkinson, CEO of Workforce Solutions Capital Area, told the Economic Opportunity Committee on March 21 that the Austin Infrastructure Academy will open its community-facing launch event March 26 and serve as a “career navigation marketplace” connecting Austinites to training and jobs tied to major public and private infrastructure projects.

The launch event is scheduled for March 26, 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at Workforce Solutions Capital Area’s facility, 9001 N. I‑35, Suite 110E. Atkinson said the event is the first of quarterly outreach activities intended to connect job seekers, training providers and infrastructure employers.

The academy is intended to coordinate training and employer demand tied to multiple large projects in Austin and the region — including Project Connect, airport expansion, I‑35 work and major private-sector employers — and to build career pathways rather than single short-term placements. Atkinson said Austin needs roughly 10,000 skilled workers annually to meet projected infrastructure demand and that the academy aims to reduce barriers to participation through navigation, wraparound supports and apprenticeship options.

Atkinson described the academy as both a physical site and a distributed service: Austin Community College will host the academy temporarily at its Riverside campus while the city and partners work toward a permanent, southeast Austin facility adjacent to the airport. “People have asked me, is the infrastructure academy a physical location or is it a concept? ... Yes. It is both,” Atkinson said.

Program design features Atkinson outlined include career navigators who assess jobseekers before enrollment, a training marketplace to align program start dates and outcomes, apprenticeship and “earn-and-learn” pathways, and a technology-enabled marketplace to be rolled out later in 2025. She said navigation staff will include a K–12 navigator focused on earlier engagement with schools and that the program will emphasize recruitment of underrepresented groups, including women, who currently represent a smaller share of the skilled trades workforce.

On child care, Atkinson said trainees participating in the Infrastructure Academy will receive six months of guaranteed child care scholarships “for as long as funds last.” Workforce Solutions will cover 100% of parent share of cost during the six months and then seek to transition eligible families to federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) subsidies for an additional 12 months. Priority for the scholarships will be individuals enrolled in academy training who reside in Travis County/City of Austin, families at or below 85% of state median income, and families in the Eastern Crescent ZIP codes. Atkinson said the program initially expects to serve about 100 children at an average cost of roughly $1,000 per month.

Committee members pressed for details about barriers other than child care, including justice‑involvement costs and one‑time crisis expenses. Councilmember Harper Madison asked whether justice‑related fees or delinquencies could be covered. Atkinson said Workforce Solutions already maintains a crisis assistance policy that can make one‑time payments for urgent needs such as a car repair or an imminent eviction and that she would check whether justice‑related expenses could be included or whether policy changes would be needed: “I will check our policy, and see what does our policy say and how might our policy be amended to take that into consideration.”

Atkinson said the academy will hire career navigators and a senior director position is open; she said the program conservatively expects to place a minimum of 100 individuals into training in the first year and to serve several hundred people through navigation (she cited an expectation of 500–600 people receiving navigator services). She also said Workforce Solutions will seek private‑sector partners to help sustain and expand the work.

If it proceeds as planned, the Infrastructure Academy will combine physical services, navigation staff and an eventual digital marketplace to link jobseekers, training and employers for long-term career pathways tied to Austin’s infrastructure pipeline.

The presentation was a briefing; the committee did not take formal action on the academy at this meeting.