Housatonic and Norwalk Community Colleges are launching a no-cost, fast-track health care training pilot program for displaced workers.
The goal of the public-private partnership is to quickly retrain unemployed workers, particularly from the hospitality field, and arrange employment within hospitals for in-demand health care jobs. Upon training completion and passing licensure exams, students will be prepared to immediately begin new jobs.
Partnerships for clinical and hiring arrangements are with Stamford, Norwalk, Greenwich, Bridgeport, Norwalk/Nuvance Health and Yale New Haven Hospitals.
The program is underwritten by the colleges”™ foundations, Bank of America and Social Venture Partners.
Bridgeport”™s Housatonic Community College is offering an accelerated, reformatted Sterile Processing Technician program. Learning will take place online and hands-on skills training will occur in the school”™s state-of-the-art sterilization simulation lab on its campus.
At Norwalk Community College, the Certified Nurse Aide program condensed didactic learning and skills training from a 14-week traditional schedule to a four-week accelerated plan with clinical rotation in partner hospitals. Instructive learning takes place online, interspersed with hands-on skills lab practice in the school”™s nursing skills lab as well as clinical rotations at hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.
“It”™s a lot to learn in a little time, but the teachers are great,” said Pamela Aquino, a student in Norwalk”™s pilot program and a former owner of a housekeeping business in Bridgeport. “Because of Covid, everything went downhill, a lot of clients just stopped. This program came at the right time.”
Fifteen students graduated from Norwalk”™s Certified Nurse Aide program last week after completing their coursework and clinical rotations.
“The program has an impressive 83% graduation rate, higher than previous nonaccelerated classes,” said Kristina Testa-Buzzee, chief regional workforce development officer for Connecticut Community Colleges Shoreline West Region.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for both nursing assistants and sterile processing technicians is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations.
Hospitality industry workers were targeted for the pilot program because of the soft skills they already possess, such as attention to detail, teamwork and customer service. Thirty students were selected for the program by Career Resources Inc., a workforce development nonprofit in Bridgeport, with qualifying candidates matched to their area of health care interest.
