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Title: Pathways to Middle-Skilled Allied Health Care Occupations

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2015

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Abstract: Health care is expected to be a source of middle-skilled job opportunities in the future. This paper explores the education and training pathways to these occupations in allied health care, which generally require less than a bachelors degree for entry. Monitoring the growth of job opportunities and changes expected of health care workers is a challenge due to decentralized nature of data collection for allied health professions. The expectation, however, is that the roles of allied health workers will change as the health needs of the US population change and team-based delivery of care becomes more common. Middle-skilled health care workers will need to learn how to coordinate and manage care, work in teams, and help patients navigate the system. Federal and state programs fund health care job-specific training opportunities and job assistance programs, but often operate in unpredictable and uncertain funding environments. Community and technical colleges are particularly important players in educating the middle-skilled health workforce. Private for-profit institutions are emerging as alternative sources for education and training, although there is some concern about whether they provide comparable returns to education as not-for-profit institutions. Public-private partnerships have shown success in training a health care workforce with the skills desired by employers. Several barriers exist to building a strong middle-skilled allied health workforce capable of meeting the changing needs of the health care delivery system. Credentials and scope-of-practice laws, which keep patients safe, make it difficult for health care workers to move geographic locations or find flexibility in their careers. The pathway to a health care career is often not clear, especially in relatively new and emerging positions. Additionally, socioeconomic concerns may impact the attraction of workers into health care careers including the availability of jobs in desirable locations, low wages and low job quality, and high educational requirements. This study offers six recommendations for generating a strong case for middle-skilled health care jobs: 1. Improve data collection by filling in the gaps for non-licensed workers, bring together siloed datasets, and identify novel ways to track emerging job titles; 2. Increase the research and discussion around career pathways and ladders; 3. Increase interprofessional dialogue throughout the educational pipeline with employers; 4. Explore apprenticeship opportunities especially in rural areas where access to training may be a challenge; 5. Raise awareness of the allied health career opportunities early in the educational pathway; and 6. Develop a panel of experts to regularly monitor the pulse of the allied health workforce.

Url: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/documents/webpage/pga_167968.pdf

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Authors: Frogner, Bianca K; Skillman, Susan M

Conference Name: Symposium on Supply Chain for Middle-Skill Jobs: Education, Training, and Certification Pathways

Publisher Location: Washington DC

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Health, Labor Force and Occupational Structure

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