In early August 2023, The Education Fund’s Executive Director, Rebecca Hanson, was a panelist in a webinar hosted by the Federal Reserve banks of Atlanta and Philadelphia, entitled “Shifting Perspectives and Expectations on Employment.” The webinar focused on the dynamics associated with achieving maximum sustainable employment at a crucial time in our nation’s economy.
Due to the pandemic, the U.S. labor market has undergone profound shifts that we are only beginning to fully appreciate. Hanson spoke on how the Education Fund’s work helps healthcare employees create new employment opportunities for themselves, as well as helping them to earn higher wages and become more financially stable in such a difficult economic climate.
Watch Education Fund Executive Director Rebecca Hanson participate in the webinar “Shifting Perspectives and Expectations on Employment”.
Since 2021 the Education Fund has supported more than 20,000 healthcare workers per year with our training and education programs. We’ve seen a quadrupling of people interested in pursuing different certificate and degree programs, and a real desire to figure out a longer term, more sustainable job and wage.
In the webinar, Hanson shared that “We’ve been able to partner with our employers to assess that for those union members who utilize our programs, they have 50% lower turnover than those who don’t. And a 48% average wage increase for those progressing through skill and certificate training into higher wage jobs. So it has a pretty big impact, and it also impacts the diversity of the patient care workforce. 70% of those we train are workers of color and 80% are women”.
“We’re really focused on offering training for those in nonclinical moving into clinical roles where we see the sharpest shortages and biggest retention issues. We’re supporting degree and certificate programs for clinical roles, and we’re offering skill courses and continuing education that help with retention,” said Hanson.
Watch the video or read the transcript to learn more about how the Education Fund and other organizations are working towards fostering maximum employment.