City scrambles to fix retraining glitches
Program aims to help up to 10,000 people thrown out of work in the COVID-19 recession
Many of the thousands of jobless San Antonians seeking help under the city’s $75 million job retraining program found themselves in telephone limbo over the last two weeks, and officials are scrambling to fix the glitches and offer other ways to apply for the program.
Job-seekers’ calls crashed Workforce Solutions Alamo’s telephone system last week, driving the agency to pump $90,000 into technical improvements to boost their ability to handle calls.
One applicant wrote in a Facebook post last week: “I’ve called several times, and each time after being on hold for an hour plus, a recording comes on saying the system is down and disconnects.”
The jobs program aims to train up to 10,000 people thrown out of work in the COVID-19 recession for jobs in high-demand fields such as health care, cybersecurity and construction. The program began accepting applicants Aug. 31.“The system is up from an infrastructure standpoint,” WSA chief executive Adrian Lopez said Tuesday evening. “We’re still making some improvements, but we’re also moving toward creating some level of automation so that people’s wait times are significantly reduced.”
WSA’S phones were down Monday and most of the day Tuesday as technicians installed the upgrades, Lopez said. Computer and phone problems created increased wait times and kept customers from connecting with em
ployment counselors.
“I think this speaks to the overwhelming nature that individuals are finding themselves in, and we’re trying to meet the needs of so many San Antonians,” said District 3 Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran, chairwoman of City Council’s economic development committee. “I know that we’re going to have it fixed, so we can get to more individuals, and they won’t have to go through the frustration of having to wait on the phone because I know we’ve all been there.”
Lopez said several hundred people likely experienced long telephone wait times or hang ups. Approximately 200 people submitted online interest forms through last Friday, and WSA has reached out to all of them.
In the first two weeks, the program showed about a 50 percent acceptance rate. Of the 1,400 people screened so far, 700 are eligible — 400 for city funds and 300 for county money, according to Lopez.
Those selected for the program may qualify for benefits such as a $450-perweek stipend and child care money.
“Workforce Solutions Alamo
has assured us they are taking the necessary steps to resolve any issues with their intake system, including making enhancements to their phone system to minimize wait times,” said Alejandra Lopez, director of San Antonio’s Economic Development Department, in an email. “Given the amount of interest over the last two weeks, we know there is an immense need for this program, so we want to remind residents that there are several other ways to apply.”
Other ways to apply
In addition to WSA, job seekers can call the city’s 311 helpline or reach out to any of the other agencies participating in the program, including Alamo Colleges and Project Quest.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the city will have a job retraining program online dashboard available sometime in October, much like the city’s COVID-19 dashboard. It will display information and usage statistics about the program.
“This whole effort is a test. It’s an experiment,” Adrian Lopez said. “It’s a test of whether we can all align together and meet these goals that are set out by both the county and the city.”
Since the COVID-19 shutdown in March, WSA has
adjusted how it does business while dealing with a surge of unemployment insurance claims, which has contributed to the technical problems.
Adrian Lopez said the agency’s 16 centers are working by appointment only, which limits their capacity to help applicants in person.
“If we had our centers completely open, and we weren’t living in COVID, we could process a lot of people in one swoop — literally having 50 people come in to one of our centers at the same time,” he said. “But COVID has presented itself as a challenge because we can’t do that.”
Also, some of his workforce is working from home, further complicating the phone glitches.
“COVID has thrown a ton of stuff at us, and we’ve made tons of changes to our operations,” he said. “We’ve probably invested over $800,000 into getting our centers ready for being open.”
Investments include personal protective equipment for those still working in the centers, laptops and computer upgrades for those working at home and free Wifi in the 16 center’s parking lots to help job seekers.
WSA has also doubled its online training sessions and developed some virtual
training programs in their centers.
No. 3 for unemployed
“When you have 280,000-plus people who’ve filed for unemployment in this region, that’s unprecedented,” he said. “In order for us to be responsive to the crisis we’re witnessing, it’s a community effort.”
In August, the San Antonio region saw the thirdhighest number of unemployment claims in Texas, behind the Gulf Coast and Dallas regions. Currently, more than 20,100 are collecting unemployment checks in the area, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.
The job retraining program’s survival beyond 2021 depends on voters’ approval of a 1/8-cent sales tax that will appear on ballots in the Nov. 3 election.
“I don’t want people to feel hopeless,” Adrian Lopez said. “We definitely will figure out how to get this done, and we will help people because that’s our mission and we’re going to stick to that.”
Brandon Lingle writes for the Express-news through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Reportforamerica.org. brandon.lingle @express-news.net