“A lot of people we train are one flat tire away from disaster,” Mike Feinberg says, leaning into the point. “You’re not going to do well in your job if you’re homeless or hungry, or your car stops working.” It’s a plain way of explaining why WorkTexas spends as much energy on housing, transportation and childcare as it does on welding torches and wiring diagrams.
Mike Feinberg’s Case Against Certification for Its Own Sake
Feinberg has never been shy about what he thinks most workforce programs get wrong. He describes asking community colleges and trade schools how they define success, only to hear back a certificate-completion rate and nothing about what happened next. “How many of those people got jobs?” he asks. “Crickets. They don’t know.”
WorkTexas set out to answer that question instead, tracking graduates for five years after they finish. The program has attracted more than 148 employer partners who shape training around what they actually need on the job. “The technical skills are about 30% of what the employers want,” Feinberg says. “What they really need is people who get to work on time, people who can work on a team.”
The Support System Behind Mike Feinberg’s Job Numbers
Vanessa Ramirez, who co-founded WorkTexas with Feinberg and now leads Project Remix Ventures for justice-involved youth, describes the program as more than trade instruction. “It’s an and, and, and,” she says. “We also have behavioral health programs. We have a sensory room.” Students facing housing instability or transportation breakdowns get connected to partners including the Houston Food Bank, Journey Through Life and the Wesley Community Center.
“That’s what created the sandbox, where different groups can all work together for the same end goal,” Feinberg says. The results have been measurable: roughly 70% of graduates secure new or better jobs, with average starting wages of $19.10 an hour. For students Ramirez works with, the barriers run deeper than logistics. “The adults in their lives have taught them not to trust because it makes you vulnerable,” she says, describing the structured routines Project Remix uses to rebuild that trust. Feinberg’s own path from KIPP to WorkTexas, including the years he spent co-founding KIPP, is documented on his TXSVF profile.