Promising Practice #3

Employing Sector Strategies

Overview

Worksystems, Inc. (WSI) is a regional board serving the wider Portland area. WSI has led two different health care sector initiatives in partnership with Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), Portland's largest employer, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which represents more than 4,000 workers at OHSU.

In one initiative WSI implemented an onsite training program for certified nurse assistants, medical assistants and radiology technologists. The second initiative targeted incumbent workers to help them explore career ladders within the OHSU system. The program also uses Job Link, an interactive web based career tool that assesses customers' skills and interests from the perspective of moving workers to self-sufficiency. JobLink aids customers in assessing skills and interests, identifies job classifications within career tracks, and links each job to skill sets, training requirements and training providers. One feature of this tool, Jobs Explorer, displays a career path in a selected job family while the Jobs Comparisons feature allows the worker to investigate the differences in required skills, education, and wages between his or her current job and other positions at OHSU.

top ^

History

The healthcare industry is the third largest employment sector in the Portland metropolitan area and has been one of the few sectors that consistently demonstrated growth through years of advancing and declining economic conditions. WSI has been working with members of the Healthcare Workforce Consortium for several years on projects designed to meet the industry’s growing need for a skilled workforce.

top ^

Partners and Funding

WSI partnered with Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), Portland's largest employer, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and the Healthcare Workforce Consortium and Portland Community College.

The WSI/OHSU/AFSCME partnership initiatives were initially funded by state and federal funds. The first training program was supported by a grant from the Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development. The career exploration/ training center project for incumbent workers was supported by grants from the state Current Workforce Skill Development Office and a US Department of Labor Sector Demonstration Grant. The success of these programs enabled WSI to leverage resources from the employer and the union so the initiative could be sustained at the end of the grant period.

Staff for the career exploration/training center project was initially grant-funded, but as the project succeeded and the value of the project staff became apparent, OHSU committed funds to pay project staff.

Challenges

Many of the individuals interested in enrolling in the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) training were not proficient in English thus; WSI’s Bilingual Projects Manager developed a number of innovative programs to address this need. The Manager worked with a training partner to arrange no-cost, on-site basic English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, which were supplemented with a specific ESL class designed for prospective CNAs.

top ^

Keys to Successful Implementation

Working with one large employer (OHSU) made it possible to be specific in documenting the necessary skills for particular jobs and to tailor training curricula accordingly.
Paying salaries to participants during their training period increased the participants’ allegiance to the program.
The joint commitment of AFSCME and OHSU to the training initiative was essential for recruitment, curriculum development, logistical assistance, and budget support.
Flexibility on the part of training providers, particularly in regard to prerequisites, was invaluable. Providers also designed the training to make it more accessible to incumbent workers through flexible scheduling and by maximizing classroom and clinical instruction on-site at the workplace.

top ^