Creating Opportunities in Health Care: The Community College Role in Workforce Partnerships

“The nation’s 1,200 community colleges were well positioned to strengthen the workforce of one of America’s most critical sectors—health care. They provided training and credentialing for incumbent workers in health care and prepared new workers to succeed in and meet the workforce demands for this sector—expanding individual opportunity and economic vitality.... They developed or enhanced health care-related certificate and degree programs to better serve employers, workers, and communities, while also identifying unique, innovative ways for nontraditional students to access, prepare for, and succeed in these programs.... A common element among the programs featured was a college’s participation in a partnership—whether one-on-one with a local health care employer or in collaboration with employers, workforce development agencies, community organizations, and other funders of and players in local and regional workforce development endeavors” (p.1). (Abstractor: Author)

“The ability of community colleges to participate in such partnerships will continue to be key to their success in growing the nation’s frontline health care workforce, even as efforts proceed to ensure the sustainability of successful innovations and take them to scale. In this respect, state policy offers an important level for enhancing the contributions of community colleges to the health of the nation. Established policies can help colleges reduce many barriers that prevent students from gaining credentials and graduate ready for employment. On the other hand, poorly designed or outmoded policies can also impede employers from being active collaborators with colleges in the design and delivery of curricula. In the immediate future, states should examine their health care training regulations and advocate for promising policy incentives…[There] a number of public policy steps that would help promote the promising practices described in this brief. These include, among others: • Making grants to educational institutions to support scholarships, other forms of tuition support, and programmatic innovations for advancing frontline workers into high-demand health professions; • Expanding and promoting loan-forgiveness programs for health care graduates and frontline workers, as well as for doctors and nurses; • Reviewing public and private rules, standards, and practices governing entry into and education for health professions; • Changing reimbursement policies of state and private insurers in ways that increase the capacity of health care employers to invest in developing and advancing frontline workers; and • Supporting competency-based standards for preparing the direct care workforce across the spectrum of aging and mental and physical disabilities, and aligning training requirements with new standards” (p.13-14). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): Biswas, Radha Roy; Kelley, Jeremy
• Organizational Author(s): Jobs for the Future
• Funding Source: MetLife Foundation
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies