Most job-training programs stop paying attention the moment a student walks across the stage. WorkTexas keeps calling for five years after that.

The Houston nonprofit, co-founded by Mike Feinberg, built that follow-up structure into the program from its 2020 launch. Career coaches check in with graduates repeatedly, asking whether they’re still employed, whether pay has moved, whether a problem at work needs solving. Feinberg says the commitment isn’t incidental to the mission. It is the mission. “We make a commitment to follow our students for at least five years,” he says. “We’re interested in what that looks like in terms of career contentment, and especially in terms of earning power and creating sustainable lives for themselves, their families, and future generations.”

The Five-Year Commitment, By the Numbers

Of roughly 900 adult alumni, more than 600 report current employment, and about 100 have returned for a second round of training aimed at higher-paying work. Adults employed a year or more after finishing average $27 an hour. None of that shows up in a completion rate, which is exactly Feinberg’s point.

Career coach Shirmeca Littlejohn sets the expectation at orientation, telling incoming cohorts the relationship runs five years deep: are they working, are they happy, are they chasing a promotion, do they need help. The conversations range from practical, like updating a resume, to something closer to counseling. “It is job coaching, which can be technical, or it can also turn into therapy at times,” Feinberg says.

Mike Feinberg’s Case Against Certificate Counting

Feinberg’s skepticism toward completion-rate bragging runs deep. Community colleges and trade schools love to cite the share of students who earn a certificate, he argues, without tracking what happens after. “How many of those people got jobs? They don’t know,” he says. “We didn’t want to fall into that trap.”

That employer-first approach draws on more than 100 companies that help shape the curriculum. Persistent obstacles like childcare and transportation haven’t disappeared. WorkTexas provides transit passes and connects students with subsidized childcare rather than running its own center, after an on-site version failed to draw enough participants.

Feinberg now faces an unusual problem: too much success. “We have so many alumni that we’re trying to figure out how we keep up with supporting them all,” he said. Growing pains rarely look this good. More on Feinberg’s work is available on his LinkedIn profile and Facebook page.