Better Care, Better Careers: The Jobs to Careers Strategy for Growing a Skilled Health...

“Jobs to Careers was a $15.8 million initiative sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with the Hitachi Foundation and the U.S. Department of Labor…. Each project brought together a partnership of employers, community colleges or other educational institutions, and community organizations. This six-year national initiative helped health care providers forge closer ties with colleges and community organizations in order to develop the skills and careers of low-wage, lower-skilled workers on the front lines of care and service delivery. With an innovative approach to work-based learning and supportive human resources policies, employers affiliated with Jobs to Careers demonstrated that frontline employees can take on greater responsibilities and advance to higher-skilled clinical and clerical positions. The initiative illustrated the potential value to employers, employees, and patients of building a culture of learning in the health care workplace—a culture that also improves the quality of care” (p.1-2). (Abstractor: Author)

Full publication title: Better Care, Better Careers: The Jobs to Careers Strategy for Growing a Skilled Health Care  Workforce

Lessons learned: • “Jobs to Careers recognized that frontline workers need flexibility in pursuing an education. Project sites customized curricula to provide evening and weekend classes... A great deal of instruction took place outside the classroom and moved into the workplace or online to make it more convenient for workers. In addition, colleges took strides to award credit for prior learning, work-based learning, and certificates and training that were traditionally considered noncredit. All these efforts helped advance workers to degrees and certificates” (p.16-17). • “Many frontline workers participating in Jobs to Careers lacked skills in basic math, literacy, and English fluency, creating academic barriers to completing occupational training, including both work-based learning and classroom instruction components. The projects ‘met frontline workers where they are’ by incorporating assessments and remediation strategies into their skill development strategies” (p.17). • “Jobs to Careers project sites recognized improvements were needed in workplace practices and culture in order to successfully engage frontline workers in the types of work-based learning that can support career advancement. Recognizing the financial burdens of education, employers implemented tuition advancement and paid release time policies. Employers also encouraged skill building with incremental wage increases along career pathways. At the same time, Jobs to Careers projects recognized the need for change in workplace culture in support of learning” (p.17). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2012
• Author(s): Alstadt, David; Flynn, Maria; Wilson, Randall
• Organizational Author(s): Jobs for the Future
• Funding Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Hitachi Foundation, U.S. Department of Labor
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: India Johnson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies