SKC awarded 386,882 for healthcare

LAKE COUNTY – The U.S. Department of Labor awarded Salish Kootnai College $386,882 Sept. 29 to prepare students for high-paying healthcare jobs across the state.

The department awarded Flathead Community College $638,940.

The awards are part of a $15 million grant designed to improve the development of the healthcare industry, said Mike Wessler, Deputy Communications Director for Montana Governor Steve Bullock.

“A strong economy requires a talented and trained workforce, with the skills to fill the jobs that are most in demand, and this is especially true in Montana’s growing healthcare industry” said Bullock in a press release.

Known as Pillar 1 of Main Street Montana: Train and Educate Tomorrow’s Workforce Today, the money is earmarked for school-community relationships designed to simplify and speed up the process of earning career certificates or degrees; student career coaching and post-graduate career-development programs.

Montana’s two-year colleges are central to this mission. Nearly half of last year’s two-year degrees and certificates were in healthcare fields, Wessler said.

Key population groups to be targeted by the Montana HealthCARE grant include long-term unemployed and veterans.

“The grant will also create healthcare Apprenticeship and Training programs for the first time in Montana and develop an integrated system for healthcare workforce planning,” he said.

Wessler said one reason Montana might face a healthcare crisis is that current professionals are aging, retiring and leaving the workforce.

“The industry is expected to add about 1,300 jobs each year until 2022,” Wessler said. “The grant is expected to result in the completion of nearly 2,500 new certificates and two-year degrees in allied health and nursing.”  

Montana HealthCARE was awarded through Round 4 of the U.S. DOL (Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program.

Last year, Montana received a $25 million grant through Round 3 of this program to fund the Strengthening Workforce Alignment in Montana’s Manufacturing and Energy Industries (SWAMMEI) consortium of 13 two-year and tribal colleges to improve workforce development through private-public partnerships in the growing advanced manufacturing and energy industries, Wessler said.