The Greater Philadelphia Healthcare Partnership (GPHP) has concluded another successful year of service to the employers, educators, workers, jobseekers and workforce development professionals of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Northern Delaware and Southern New Jersey. Activities throughout the 2015-16 IP cycle, from speakers at quarterly partnership meetings to new projects and investments in healthcare and human services Registered Apprenticeship, supported and promoted new and innovative approaches to health and human services provision and sectoral workforce development throughout the Delaware Valley.
Highlights of the Partnership’s eleventh year included the graduation of Pennsylvania’s first-ever Community Health Worker (CHW) Registered Apprentices through a partnership with Philadelphia FIGHT, as well as participation in statewide advocacy work to promote the CHW model; the restoration of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Industry Partnership funding through Governor Wolf’s Department of Labor & Industry, as well as additional Commonwealth funding to promote the adaption of the Apprenticeship model in non-traditional health and human services occupations; outgoing Mayor Michael Nutter’s proclamation of Philadelphia Apprenticeship Week during the annual GPHP High School Healthcare Career Fair; ongoing implementation of the Delaware Valley Healthcare Employment & Training Project, GPHP’s multiyear, multimillion dollar US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration “on-the-job training” (OJT) grant; and another banner year of over 230 training completions by community residents and incumbent workers employed by GPHP partners.
As always, job training and workforce development activities represented the core of GPHP’s work over the past year. Job-seekers and incumbent workers at employer partners participated in a wide range of trainings over the course of the year, on topics including workforce readiness, communications and customer service, infection control, coding and the Electronic Health Record, and more. This broad suite of training programs is just a sample of the full range available to partner organizations at reduced costs. This year, GPHP completed a total of 230 such trainings.
GPHP also continued its successful US Department of Labor-funded grant programs subsidizing OJT placements for un– and under-employed workers in Greater Philadelphia’s healthcare sector. GPHP successfully closed out the first of these grants in Spring 2016, and has seen growing success in beating placements targets in the second grant so far this year. This new grant enabled the addition of two new occupations (Community Health Worker and Data Analyst) and a Registered Apprenticeship model to the menu of OJT options available to participating employers.
Registered Apprenticeship — a top priority for the Obama and Wolf administrations — was a key component of GPHP’s work this year, culminating in a graduation ceremony at Philadelphia FIGHT for Pennsylvania’s first CHW Registered Apprentices upon their achieving journey-worker status. GPHP Director Susan Thomas and Emerging Occupations Coordinator Dawn Johnson have continued to play a major role in CHW advocacy in Pennsylvania, helping lead task force committees on employer outreach, training and policy change to support the broader use of CHW services in Pennsylvania.
As it begins its 12th year of service, GPHP looks forward to the contributions it can continue making to the success of the Greater Philadelphia region’s health industry and workforce.
As always, job training and workforce development activities represented the core of GPHP’s work over the past year. Job-seekers and incumbent workers at employer partners participated in a wide range of trainings over the course of the year, on topics including workforce readiness, communications and customer service, infection control, coding and the Electronic Health Record, and more. This broad suite of training programs is just a sample of the full range available to partner organizations at reduced costs. This year, GPHP completed a total of 230 such trainings.
GPHP also continued its successful US Department of Labor-funded grant programs subsidizing OJT placements for un– and under-employed workers in Greater Philadelphia’s healthcare sector. GPHP successfully closed out the first of these grants in Spring 2016, and has seen growing success in beating placements targets in the second grant so far this year. This new grant enabled the addition of two new occupations (Community Health Worker and Data Analyst) and a Registered Apprenticeship model to the menu of OJT options available to participating employers.
Registered Apprenticeship — a top priority for the Obama and Wolf administrations — was a key component of GPHP’s work this year, culminating in a graduation ceremony at Philadelphia FIGHT for Pennsylvania’s first CHW Registered Apprentices upon their achieving journey-worker status. GPHP Director Susan Thomas and Emerging Occupations Coordinator Dawn Johnson have continued to play a major role in CHW advocacy in Pennsylvania, helping lead task force committees on employer outreach, training and policy change to support the broader use of CHW services in Pennsylvania.
As it begins its 12th year of service, GPHP looks forward to the contributions it can continue making to the success of the Greater Philadelphia region’s health industry and workforce.