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PCC awarded $4.8 million in federal grant money to help train health care workers
Photos and story by James Hill
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced Portland Community College will receive $4,841,299 in a Community‐Based Job Training Grant Award for the Healthcare Oregon Pathways to Employment Project (HOPE).
Building on the work by the Oregon Pathways Alliance, PCC’s HOPE project will prepare and train 875 job-seekers for careers in high‐demand health care fields.
The award is part of $125 million in grants to 41 community colleges and organizations across the country. The grants aim to improve the ability of community colleges to train and prepare workers for employment in high growth and other emerging industries. They focus on providing services to workers who are unemployed, dislocated and incumbent workers.
Building on the work by the Oregon Pathways Alliance, PCC’s HOPE project will prepare and train 875 job-seekers for careers in high‐demand health care fields. Given the urgent need for Oregonians to get jobs, project partners will focus on training people and getting them into the workforce while providing skills that are gateways to other healthcare occupations.
“This is exciting news,” said PCC President Preston Pulliams. “At a time when more and more Oregon families are turning to community colleges to get through these tough economic times, this sort of federal funding to help create a better-trained workforce is critical. At PCC, our enrollment is up almost 20 percent while our state funding has been cut. Today’s announcement will help us help more Oregonians.”
Partners on this grant include Clackamas Community College, Human Solutions, The Job Council, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Klamath Community College, Lane Community College, Lane Workforce Partnership, Mt. Hood Community College, Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, Oregon Coast Community College, Oregon Healthcare Association, Oregon Workforce Alliance, Pinnacle Healthcare, Rogue Community College, Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital, Willamette View, and Worksystems, Inc.
The project will serve unemployed, dislocated and incumbent workers in Benton, Clackamas, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Multnomah and Washington counties.
About James Hill
James G. Hill, an award-winning journalist and public relations writer, is the Director of Public Relations at Portland Community College. A graduate of Portland State University, James has worked as a section editor for the Newberg Graphic... more »