The partnership between the Strong Workforce Program (SWP) Regional Allied Health program, under the leadership of West Los Angeles College, and the Toro Health Pathways program from the College of Health, Human Services and Nursing (CHHSN), CSU Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) is a response to the dire shortage of health care workers in the state as well as to the need for diversification of the healthcare workforce. The present collaboration is an attempt to better meet the recruitment challenges in the health sector as well as the considerable drops in enrollment that is occurring across higher education.
This collaboration came about by a mutual interest to strengthen career education in the region and to provide students in the region that are interested in a career in health with a clear and trouble-free pathway from their educational training to the workforce. To ensure that this happens, the programs have stood up efforts to ensure that industry, career preparation, and educational institutions are communicating and coordinating efforts to reach their institutional and partnership goals.
The Los Angeles Regional Consortium’s Strong Workforce Program Regional Allied Health program invited the College of Health, Human Services and Nursing from CSU Dominguez Hills to be a part of LARC’s collaborative monthly meetings, which bring together the consortium’s 19 community colleges, workforce development boards, industry stakeholders, civic leaders to discuss ways to meet current workforce demands and pathways between K-12, community colleges and 4-year higher education institutions.
A result from these meetings was a convening held on November 3rd at CSUDH which brought together representatives from the health-related academic programs of 17 regional community colleges, three K-12 school districts and two 4-year universities (Charles Drew, CSUDH) for the express purposes of establish working relationships among regional educational partners to ensure a steady pipeline of students into health degree programs and out toward the health care workforce. The convening also saw representatives from the South Bay Workforce Investment Board, the Los Angeles Regional Consortium, and the Hospital Association of Southern California to explore opportunities for work-based learning and apprenticeship programs which can benefit the recruitment and diversification of the health care workforce in the region.
The convening generated great conversations and collaboration plans to align academic and educational programs through possible dual enrollment agreements, associate degree for transfer agreements, and partnerships with workforce boards interested in work-based learning and apprenticeship training opportunities. Thanks to the convening, both programs are now on a starting line of what is hoped will be an ongoing structured outreach effort to ensure that partner educational institutions can enroll and educate a steady stream of students and meet the need for a diversified health workforce.
Members of the public are invited to attend the upcoming Allied Health Summit & Job Fair on Thursday, January 25th from 9:00AM – 1:00PM at WLAC Fine Arts Courtyard. Register here.
Partners:
Community Colleges: Cerritos College, Citrus College, Compton College, El Camino College, Glendale Community College, Long Beach City College, Mt. San Antonio College, Pasadena City College, Rio Hondo College Santa Monica College, East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles Harbor College, Los Angeles Mission College, Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, Los Angeles Southwest College, Los Angeles Valley College, Pierce College, West Los Angeles College
4-year institutions: CSUDH College of Health, Human Services and Nursing; Charles R Drew University of Science & Medicine
Institutions/Groups: South Bay Workforce Investment Board-SBWIB, Los Angeles Regional Consortium, Hospital Association of Southern California, Bellflower Unified School District
