The Shifting Landscape of Career Preparation: How Houston’s WorkTexas Program Responds to Industry Demands
As college costs continue to rise and employers increasingly focus on skills over degrees, one Houston program is helping to lead a transformation in vocational education by closely aligning training with industry needs.
“Kids and parents [were] told if you want to be successful in this world, you have to go to college,” says Mike Feinberg, co-founder of WorkTexas. “In the ’90s, it was a car loan — now it’s a home mortgage.”
Meeting Industry Demands Through Comprehensive Training
Launched in 2020, WorkTexas has rapidly expanded its offerings to meet employer needs. “We still train in those fields,” Feinberg explains. “We’ve since added plumbing and HVAC and building maintenance and CDL truck driving, CDA, childcare teacher, medical assistant rigging, warehouse, logistics, culinary. We’re about to start a barbershop.”
What distinguishes WorkTexas is its comprehensive approach to career readiness. “The technical skills are about 30% of what the employers want,” Feinberg notes. “The other 70% all say the exact same thing. They’ll go, Mike, look, yeah, we need more welders who can lay a bead? We need more electricians who can bend conduit. But what we really need, people get to work on time.”
Feinberg’s Focus on Long-Term Success
The program’s success is evident in its outcomes: 70% of WorkTexas alumni have either secured new employment or advanced in their current positions, with average starting wages of $19.10 per hour.
Through grants and scholarships, most participants can attend at no cost. “There’s basically in this country, if someone is unemployed or underemployed, there is an equivalent of a Pell grant for trades,” Feinberg explains. “They can get to help learn a new trade.”
The program maintains contact with graduates for five years post-completion. “We make a commitment to follow our students who were trained for at least five years to help them not just get the job, but it’s the second two parts. It’s keep the job and advancing careers,” Feinberg says. “We’re interested in what that looks like in terms of career contentment and especially what it looks like in terms of earning power and creating sustainable lives for themselves and their families and future generations.”
By focusing on employer needs while providing comprehensive support to students, WorkTexas is helping to create a new model for vocational education that addresses both industry demands and individual career development needs.