Three US mayors, including Austin's, discuss workforce development at SXSW

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Three mayors, including Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, attended South by Southwest Sunday afternoon to talk to attendees about strides they’ve made with workforce development in their growing cities. 

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg joined Watson to discuss not only the importance of workforce development for a municipality’s economic development but also the economic mobility of its constituents. 

“We're seeing workforce as a challenge all across the country – you can't read a paper in the morning without hearing some sector challenged by finding workers. These three mayors in Kansas City, San Antonio and Austin are actually doing something about it,” said Laura Huffman, CEO of Civcsol, who moderated the discussion. 

“While each of the programs is a little bit different, [the mayors] all really focused on workforce development as a key mechanism to create economic mobility in their communities,” Huffman continued. 

Workforce development in Austin 

Watson spoke to festivalgoers about the city’s new infrastructure academy, approved at Thursday’s city council meeting, which will train local workers to be employed on upcoming transformative projects, such as the expansion of Interstate 35 or the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

“We are– if I do say so myself – a very successful region when it comes to creating jobs. And we've got a lot of infrastructure projects in play,” Watson said. 

“A challenge of that success is that we have a large part of our population that can't afford to live in our city,” he continued. “I frankly don't believe that we will be the kind of complete city we want to be here if people are moving out because they can't afford to be here or don't believe the city cares about them.” 

Watson said in order for Austin to feel “complete,” every kind of person should be able to afford to live in it, including those who do not have a four-year degree.

He hopes the Infrastructure Academy will address two problems – developing a workforce capable of completing upcoming projects and increasing economic mobility for some Austinites who feel left behind or ignored. 

“Let's focus on the human infrastructure that we need in order to build the physical infrastructure,” Watson said.