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ETA News Release: [03/12/2004]
Contact Name: Lorette
Post
Phone Number: (202) 693-3984
U.S. Secretary of Labor Announces $24.4 Million Health
Care Initiative
First Two Grants Awarded to the Johns Hopkins
Health System, State of Maryland
BALTIMORE, Md.—U.S.
Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today announced a new national Health Care
Initiative worth $24.4 million to address critical worker shortages in the
industry. The kick-off event at The Johns Hopkins Hospital included the
announcement of the Initiative’s first two grants—$3 million to The
Johns Hopkins Health System and $1.5 million to the State of Maryland. The
grants are part of the President’s High Growth Job Training
Initiative.
“Today we are announcing the kickoff of a new $24.4 million
initiative to help train workers for jobs in the high growth health sector of
our economy,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “The Johns
Hopkins Hospital and the State of Maryland will be the first recipients to be
given the funds as part of the President’s High Growth Job Training
Initiative. There is a critical need for new workers in the health care field
and these grants will help provide the skills training needed to pair workers
with new good paying health care jobs.”
Secretary Chao was joined by Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael S.
Steele, the state’s Secretary of Labor, Licensing and Regulation James D.
Fielder, Jr., and by Ron Peterson, president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and
Health System. Several workers who will benefit from the hospital grant also
attended the event.
The Johns Hopkins Health System grant will fund training for current
workers, provide GED and diploma preparation and upgrade training for positions
experiencing critical worker shortages. Between 450 and 500 employees will
benefit from the project.
Run by the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board, the second grant
will address the lack of faculty for health care professions by funding
scholarships for nurses who pursue credentials to teach at the college and
university level. Additional funding will train current workers for future
health care jobs and support scholarships for LPN’s and other incumbent
workers seeking credentials as registered nurses.
“The health care industry is predicted to grow at a rate of 28
percent between 2002 and 2012, adding 3.5 million new jobs,” said
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco.
“This initiative will fund solutions to the worker shortages facing the
health care industry today and in the future. The programs supported by these
grants will serve as models to equip workers with the skills needed to hold
good jobs at good pay and continue providing Americans with quality health
care.”
The High Growth Job Training Initiative is a strategic effort to better
prepare workers to take advantage of new job opportunities in high growth
sectors of the American economy. Through executive forums with leaders of
expanding industries, critical workforce gaps and issues are identified.
Solutions, like today’s grants, are then created in cooperation with
employers, educational institutions and the public workforce system.
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