Full Circle: Three Years of Accomplishment

Since its inception in 2008, the Competitive Workforce Alliance Allied Health Regional Skills Partnership has grown from a collection of curious individuals to a strong collaboration of employers, educators, entrepreneurs, workforce and economic development professionals who together have created innovative models for addressing allied health workforce needs and shortages. Funded by the Department of Commerce, the Partnership was given three years to create itself and develop working models to increase the number of qualified workers in high-demand allied health positions. This grant expires December 31, and what began as an experiment has come full circle to create three successful workforce development models and tobegin creating another model of cooperation, communication and collaboration. To see the details of the accomplishments of this extraordinary Partnership click here for Full Circle: Three Years of Accomplishment: a PowerPoint of the accomplishments.

Guided by its mission --“to assure that the region has the allied health resources necessary to meet the healthcare needs of its citizens”—the Competitive Workforce Alliance Allied Health Regional Skills Partnership has created models that focus in three areas; increasing public education and awareness of allied health career fields, developing career pathways models that engage and promote incumbent workers to needed higher skilled positions, and identifying and launching needed training programs in the region. All these programs are now operating in various areas of the region, and are available for other organizations and institutions to use.

Allied Health Solutions Summit

The Partnership launched itself into the public eye by planning and hosting the Competitive Workforce Alliance Allied Health Regional Solutions Summit held on July 15, 2008, just six months after the Partnership was founded. It was designed to provide practical examples from experts who have successfully implemented allied health sector projects. Keynote Speakers from the Metropolitan Workforce Boards of Chicago and Boston’s Beth Israel DeaconessMedical Center gave details on successful strategies for engaging partners and creating pipeline programs that reduced workforce shortages and formed successful, sustained collaborations among workforce development boards, community colleges, employers and others.

More than 100 people, including Roger Shackleford, NC Department of Commerce-Division of Workforce Development Director, attended this state’s first Allied Health Solutions Summit. Other featured speakers included a team from the Piedmont Triad Regional Skills Partnership, which has created collaboration between employers, community colleges, and educators to design a new pharmacy tech position intended to help ease the shortage of pharmacists in the state. While held for employers, educators, and workforce professionals in the region, the Summit was designed to provide practical examples to all Regional Skills Partnerships funded under the NC Department of Commerce Sector Strategy Planning Grant.

Career Showcases (Public Education and Awareness)

This spring marked the second year that the Partnership has sponsored a series of Career Showcases across the region. The Showcases were designed to increase public education and awareness of allied health occupations, and feature exhibitors demonstrating various allied health careers, educators explaining available training programs and employment and training specialists offering career and resume guidance. These Showcases have targeted both adult dislocated, unemployed and underemployed workers, as well as middle and high school students considering healthcare careers. This year’s Showcases included events in: Rowan-Cabarrus, Cleveland, Mecklenburg and Gaston Counties in North Carolina, and for the first time York, South Carolina. You may view a short video taken at the Mecklenburg Career Showcase by visiting our website www.agreatworkforce.com

Career Pathways

Carolinas Medical Center-Union is the home of a pilot career pathways project designed to encourage incumbent workers to fill vacancies in higher-skilled positions as Physical Therapist Assistants. The hospital provided workers with assistance in career guidance and counseling, locating training programs, tuition reimbursement, access to computers and other needed equipment. This program was developed as a model for other institutions to fill their much-needed vacancies with existing employees. Matching funding from the RSP paidfor the career support counselor that monitored student progress and offered support to overcome any obstacles. The initiative was launched last year, and the first participants are now enrolled in training programs.

The Partnership has also recently approved a new initiative to develop a career pathways program for anesthesia technicians. There is no other program like this in the state. Currently candidates are hired “off the street” and trained on the job to perform low-skilled repetitive tasks. The turnover rate is high and job advancement opportunities are very limited. With funding from the RSP, Carolinas College of Health Sciences developed a continuing education curriculum for anesthesia tech that will create a series of certifications that establish a uniform training program and allow for promotions and salary increases. This curriculum will be made available to any community college in the state wishing to start such a program.

Training Expansion

Central Piedmont Community College’s Occupational Therapy Assistant Program (OTA) is scheduled to start in 2012. The Partnership was instrumental in launching the program, which was developed in response to an employer-reported shortage. Adding this program expands CPCC’s allied health training program curriculum and expands employment opportunities for the Charlotte region. CPCC expects the inaugural class to start in fall 2012, one semester earlier than had been projected.

Partnering with JobLinks

Increasing the number of qualified allied health workers by strengthening the partnership between community colleges and JobLink Centers was another accomplishment of the Regional Skills Partnership. Experts from community colleges in the five western counties of the region designed a comprehensive brochure with details on area training options and donated copies to area JobLinks for distribution. Educators also created special sessions with JobLink professionals to answer questions and develop professional pipelines for referrals to training programs. This pilot project is model that can be used by community colleges across the region to provide allied health career information sessions for area JobLink counselors, and templates of the brochure are available free of charge to interested organizations.