ADVANCING HEALTH CARE WORKERS

THE POWER OF WORK-BASED LEARNING

Lisa Cortes had scraped thousands of breakfast, lunch, and dinner trays at a Youngstown, Ohio, hospital when a supervisor recommended her for a training program that could lead to full-time employment and benefits. 

“It was hard to get back on the bike and pedal it,” Cortes, 42, said about returning to the classroom decades after quitting school, pregnant, at 17. But, she added: “I was on a mission. I haven’t reached my max.” 

Thanks to Humility of Mary’s training programs, Cortes became a certified unit clerk—and later a heart monitor technician. She’s now on the path to becoming a nurse. Each time a health care worker like Lisa learns new skills and earns credentials for career advancement, our nation becomes better off, our economy strengthens, and patients receive better care. 

JFF has developed work-based learning models that help Lisa and others like her gain training on the job and in the classroom at little or no cost to themselves. This Newswire features lessons learned from Jobs to Careers, a $15.8 million national initiative to implement these models in Youngstown and 16 other communities. It also highlights our next step: helping more hospitals adopt these training models. Read Lisa’s full story HERE. 

BETTER CARE, BETTER CAREERS

Jobs to Careers culminated this year. A new report, Better Care, Better Careers, summarizes its quantitative and qualitative impacts, and discusses how other health care providers can replicate its successes. Jobs to Careers was sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with The Hitachi Foundation and the U.S. Department of Labor. Read more . . .

HOSPITALS TO INVEST IN WORKER EDUCATION . . . “STAT”

With hospitals struggling to train and retain qualified health care workers, a new guide explains why and how they should invest in on-the-job training and other education opportunities for frontline staff.

Through the CareerSTAT project, nearly 30 hospitals nationwide have committed to investing more time and resources in the education and career advancement of frontline health care workers—and more will join in the coming years. 

CareerSTAT, a collaboration of JFF and the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, promotes the same work-based learning programs that helped health care workers gain skills and college credit through Jobs to Careers. Read more . . .

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REAL-TIME LABOR MARKET INFO

A CONSUMER'S GUIDE

In recent years, private, for-profit companies have developed tools for harvesting and analyzing real-time labor market information. Up-to-the-minute data on job postings can help jobseekers and education institutions understand local hiring trends, as well as the certification and skill prerequisities for available jobs.

As part of Credentials that Work, an initiative that promotes the use of real-time LMI to align investments in education and training with the needs of the economy, JFF has reviewed the products of six leading vendors of real-time LMI to help colleges and others decide which ones would provide the best fit for them. Read more . . .

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STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING

TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE ERA OF THE COMMON CORE

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HIGHER ED

EMPOWERING FACULTY TO DRIVE COMPLETION EFFORTS

States wrestling with the challenge of increasing community college completion rates recognize that a critical next step is building support among faculty for reform, according to a new JFF report prepared for Completion by Design, Achieving the Dream, and the Developmental Education Initiative. Faculty can play a crucial role in bridging the historic divide between policy and practice. Empowering them to take a substantive role in informing policy decisions, while also supporting pedagogical and curricular changes in their classrooms, has proven to be a successful strategy in several states. Read more . . .

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IN THE NEWS

• Apr. 10: The Wall Street Journal cited JFF’s report on states’ early graduation policies in an article evaluating the pros and cons of students leaving high school for college after three years. 
• Apr. 19: The Nation interviewed Nancy Hoffman about the future of career and technical education in the United States, as well as lessons from other countries’ CTE programs captured in Hoffman’s new book, Schooling in the Workplace. 

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ON THE ROAD

May 9, National Association of Workforce Development Professionals, Las Vegas, NV: 

• Deborah Kobes discusses the role of workforce partnerships in implementing a pre-apprenticeship model. She and other panelists from Wider Opportunities for Women and the Community Services Agency of the Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO will talk about nurturing collaboration among service providers. 

Apr. 22-23, American Association of Community Colleges Annual Convention, Orlando, FL: 

• John Dorrer talked with state leaders using performance-based funding to reward colleges for student progression and completion, not just enrollment. In a separate presentation, he explained the use of real-time data to determine which credentials have value in local labor markets. 
• Michael Lawrence Collins co-presented on Completion by Design, a five-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative that works with community colleges to substantially increase completion rates for these, while holding down costs and maintaining access and quality. 

Apr. 18, Senate HELP Committee Hearing, Washington, DC: 

• Early college, a proven strategy for increasing low-income students’ college readiness, deserves state and federal support. Read Joel Vargas’ testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions or watch the video of the full hearing. 

SEE YOU ONLINE!

Talk to us and see what’s new in #edreform, #highered, and workforce development (#wkdev) on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

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