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OPA News Release: [04/14/2004]
Contact Name: Lorette Post
Phone Number: (202) 693-3984

U.S. Secretary of Labor Announces Additional High Growth Job Training Initiative Health Care Grants

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L Chao today announced the recipients of $13.5 million in High Growth Job Training grants to help prepare workers for skilled jobs in the health-care industry. The grants announced today are part of a new $24.3 million Health Care Initiative that Secretary Chao kicked off last month in Baltimore. Health care is the first industry for which solutions have been developed and announced under the President's High Growth Job Training Initiative.

"Today we are announcing the 13 remaining grants in a $24.3 million effort to respond to the workforce challenges of the high growth health care sector of our economy," Chao said. "There is a critical need for new workers in the health care field and these 13 grants, along with the six announced previously, will help provide the skills training to pair workers with new, good-paying health care jobs."

For the past nine months, the U.S. Department of Labor has been working with businesses, educators and the public workforce system to address workforce issues and solutions in 12 identified high-growth industries. These include health care, information technology, biotechnology, geospatial technology, automotive, retail, advanced manufacturing, construction, transportation, hospitality, financial services and energy.

The set of solutions for health care cuts across the national labor needs of the industry in acute care, long-term care, allied health care professions and the unique problems facing rural areas. Among the solutions funded by the grants are increased recruitment through outreach to youth and alternative labor pools, retention and advancement of present employees, expansion of faculty and capacity of educational institutions to provide training, and new training strategies like apprenticeship, distance learning and accelerated learning.

"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 for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco. "The programs supported by these grants will serve as models for the public workforce system to equip workers with skills needed to hold good jobs at good pay and continue providing Americans with qualify health care."

The President's 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 are then created in cooperation with employers, educational institutions and the public workforce system.

Note: A full list of health care grants is attached. The Department of Labor has a sound bite available online in two formats at http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/audio/

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