Healthcare Skills Alliance of Northwest Michigan
Welcome to the Web site of Healthcare Skills Alliance of Northwest Michigan.
The Healthcare Skills Alliance is committed to assisting the healthcare industry in Northwest Michigan to develop a credentialed, sustainable, qualified workforce in long-term care, nursing, and allied health. The Healthcare Skills Alliance is an established (2004) partnership of healthcare employers, educators, and workforce development organizations who are committed to enhancing capacity and increasing the quality of training and education in healthcare for job seekers and low-wage workers.
The Healthcare Career Pathway offers a variety of training and education in the region's top high-growth, high-demand labor market. Dislocated and low-wage workers enter and move through the career pathway to obtain employment while those working are able to move through the Career Pathway to increase high-need competencies, which improve job retention.
The Healthcare Career Pathway was developed over several years to meet the ever-changing skills and competencies indentified by healthcare employers. Healthcare is a very large and intricate industry where new technology, medicines, surgical procedures, research, best practices, regulation and aging population are just a few of the implications that create the need for agile response in workforce demands. Therefore, the Healthcare Career Pathway for NW Michigan offers a variety of training and education in the region’s high-growth, high demand labor market. Dislocated and low-wage workers are trained to meet the needs of local employers primarily in long-term care, allied health and nursing.
Funding for Healthcare RSA
The Healthcare Skills Alliance (HSA) was originally funded in 2004 by the State of Michigan as one of the first eight organizations in Michigan to convene employers, educators and workforce professionals to meet the labor market demands in the region. In 2007, the HSA was one of six programs in the nation to be awarded $500,000 for a year grant (2007-2010) from the USDOL Employment and Training Act to implement a Direct Care Worker Career Pathway as a foundation for one of the first non-traditional USDOL Certified Nurse Aide Apprenticeship programs. Also, in 2007 the former Michigan State Department of Labor, Energy and Economic Growth also funded portions of the program which increased the capacity to deliver training, extend the apprenticeship program and provide an innovative clinical placement system to reduce the bottleneck in medical/nursing careers at local community colleges.
In 2011, the Skills Alliance was awarded funding for the development of best practices and training opportunities in the new administrations’ Healthcare Cluster initiative which seeks to include all aspects of the Healthcare industry to provide much needed training, up-skilling and forecasting of healthcare employer needs with particular attention to IT training and the increased demand proffered by aging baby-boomers who will unfortunately be challenged with dementia, chronic illness and frailty while choosing to stay in their own homes. The Healthcare Career Pathway will be realigned to meet these new demands.
Contact Information:
Jean Peters, Healthcare Skills Alliance Coordinator
Phone: (231) 929-5000
Email: jeanpeters@nwm.cog.mi.us
