East Cascades Works is the non-profit workforce development board that serves Central Oregon. We partner with hiring employers from high wage, high demand industries to co-develop strategies to address their workforce needs. To this end, we partner closely with non-profits, state agencies and education providers. One of our target industries is Health Care and so we launched a Central Oregon Health Care Workforce Consortia (HCWC) to develop industry-led strategies to address their workforce challenges.
In November 2018, there were unfilled positions in almost every single occupation for which COCC’s Allied Health programs prepare students. Several of the occupations had multiple listings demonstrating a stronger need for a pipeline including medical assistants, nursing assistants, pharmacy technicians and dental assistants.
“I never actually thought of going to school to be a dental assistant. Living in Los Angeles, I enjoyed working with kids. I volunteered and worked with kids in an after school program. I thought I would be working in the child development field. When I moved to Bend, OR I was working retail jobs and felt like getting a stable career going. I saw the programs COCC offered and spoke to some friends. I investigated salaries and what it took to be a dental assistant. I spoke to Deborah Davis, one of the directors of the program, and she suggested going to a dental office and shadowing for a couple days. After a week of being in a dental office and seeing the type of work in this field, I decided to start the program.”
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- According to Conference Board Help Wanted Online (a web-based job posting aggregation tool), more than 150 positions for medical assistants, dental assistants, nursing assistants, EMT/paramedics, pharmacy technicians and health info technicians were posted in Central Oregon in the last 120 days. This is likely an under-reporting due to the way the tool counts a single job post as one position even though it may be to fill multiple openings. For example, at any given time St. Charles has a need for as many as 50 Certified Nurse Assistants, although only one job posting exists for these positions. The need is not projected to reduce over time but rather increase.
- The project was implemented by East Cascades Works.
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The project attempted to:- Increase annual enrollment in COCC’s Medical Assisting Program, Dental Assisting, CNA 1 and CNA2 programs, Health Information Technology program, and Pharmacy Technician program
- By July 2021, enrollment will increase by an average of 25% in the Pharmacy Technician program to 68% enrollment
This project is in progress, and we are on track with the timelines indicated in our application. The project is approximately 51-75% complete.
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- COVID has presented barriers and challenges on both the recruitment and the placement ends of the project, however we have implemented various protocols for safety and have begun delivering programming online whenever possible.
- COVID has presented barriers and challenges on both the recruitment and the placement ends of the project, however we have implemented various protocols for safety and have begun delivering programming online whenever possible.
Enrollment for the following programs looks strong for next year.
Hired a team of filmmakers to create a variety of videos to promote the COCC Health Career programs.
Due to the pandemic, we have had to rely on opportunities for virtual advertising which has many benefits including reaching a wider, more diverse or non-traditional audience.