Workforce Training

The Westside Education & Training Center (WETC)

WDC Partnership and Collaboration with WETC

In 2015, the Westside Development Corporation joined Alamo Colleges, Edgewood Independent School District (EISD), and the City of San Antonio (CoSA) as an official partner and stakeholder at the Alamo colleges Westside Education and Training Center (WETC). The WDC has been engaged to study the local workforce and labor market demographics to determine occupational and technical skill training that can be conducted at WETC now and in the future. WDC provides Alamo Colleges WETC with on-going strategic assistance, marketing support, and stakeholder event coordination to assist with the implementation and development of the WETC master plan for the new state-of-the-art Westside campus.

WDC strategically assisted Alamo Colleges with securing a $23 million bond in May 2017 to build a new state-of-the-art workforce training and college campus on the Westside. Currently, the partnership is negotiating the purchase of the current Edgewood ISD property where WETC resides for the new campus.

Additionally, WDC assists WETC and the partners with identification and development of priority programming for the upcoming new campus.

WDC Supports Workforce Training Opportunities at WETC

Since 2015, WDC has supported and incubated two workforce-training opportunities at WETC, La Printeria and San Antonio Motion Picture Academy.

Once the new campus is built, WDC will continue to incubate new and improved workforce training opportunities in the arts, health care, and other job growth opportunities for Westside residents.

La Printeria

Founder and Executive Director of La Printeria, Harvey Mireles
La Printeria, which opened in 2016, is a 3,000 square-foot collaborative state-of- the-art fine art print shop facility that sits within Alamo Colleges Westside Education and Training Center (WETC) in the Edgewood area of the WDC Empowerment Zone. It came to fruition through the efforts of the WDC, Alamo Colleges WETC, La Printeria’s founder and local community planning, partnerships and seed funding. La Printeria and WDC link business practicum, skills training and higher education programming through fine arts to help local artists earn a better living from their unique cultural art, improve their economic mobility, and provide them with empowerment through technical skills training. La Printeria operates as a social enterprise, providing holistic services that serve entrepreneur artists, and offers programming for at-risk youth, early high school college credits for the Edgewood Independent School District (EISD) and continuing education adult learning fine art certifications.

San Antonio Motion Picture Academy

Director, Brandon K Olmos
The San Antonio Motion Picture Academy is a program of Alamo Colleges Westside Education and Training Center (WETC) and the City of San Antonio Westside Development Corporation (WDC) as its financial sponsor while SAMPA achieves its non-profit 501 (c)(3) status.
Pilot Program Case Study
La Printeria, UT Health and Westside Development Corporation partnered with East Central High School to offer this opportunity. The Academy engaged the youth to gather information from guest experts about air quality, sustainability, climate change, etc. The youth then worked with La Printeria to use hand crafted fine art printmaking to create a message about what they have learned. The students will present their art work and speak about the related environmental message at Earth Day, April 21st, at Woodlawn Lake!

UT Health received funding through the Aetna Foundation to begin an Air Quality Youth Leadership Academy for teens ages 13-18years. The Academy works to increase environmental literacy, particularly about air quality and its impact on health, among these youth and then facilitates their acts of leadership to advocate for environmental sustainability.

Collaboration to Implement a Food Pantry for WETC Students

WDC and WETC partnered with the San Antonio Food Bank to open the first Food Pantry for students at WETC, opened in November 2017 and served 49 students. The pantry consists of dry and canned goods. The WETC/WDC Food Pantry is held every third Friday of every month. Once established, future plans are to open the food pantry to the community.

The WETC/WDC Food Pantry teamed up with Raul Joaquin Abrego, a Community Health Worker from Metropolitan Health District’s Healthy Neighborhoods Program to perform food demos to the students during the food pantry distribution. He demonstrates how to cook healthy meals with the food they receive. The students at WETC enjoy learning how to add vegetables into their meals and are able to sample new recipe items. These demonstrations will continue each month during the food pantry hours.