Project Summary

Workforce Solutions–Capital Area Workforce Board collaborated with Austin Community College, the Seton Family of Hospitals, St. David’s HealthCare, and the Health Industry Steering Committee (a nonprofit intermediary) to prepare frontline workers for two career paths: a clinical path leading to jobs as clinical technicians; and a clerical path leading to jobs as patient access representatives.

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“Patient care is our top priority. We believe that training and retaining qualified frontline
workers and health care professionals is the key to providing exceptional patient care.”
—Sally Gillam, Chief Nursing Officer, St. David’s South Austin Medical Center
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A cornerstone of Exceed was the development of 11 work-based learning modules. Without leaving the workplace, workers could use these modules as opportunities to build, practice, and demonstrate their mastery of the skills needed to achieve a college credential (i.e., a continuing education certificate of completion). Workers pursing the clinical technician career path received training in such skill areas as phlebotomy and aseptic technique. Those in the patient access representative career path received training in such areas as customer service and financial services policies.

Austin Community College awarded college-level continuing education credit to workers for competencies they mastered through both prior learning and work-based learning. The workers also enrolled in college-level for-credit courses on medical terminology and college success, and received academic counseling. Hospital staff acting as job coaches also received training.

At the start of the project, job coaches and supervisors documented the skills of frontline employees using skills checklists. Those demonstrating mastery of a particular skill did not have to take work-based learning modules in those areas and could focus on other modules needed to receive a college credential. As employees completed the modules, they built portfolios of documented skills to be submitted and verified by Austin Community College. The college evaluated the portfolios and awarded appropriate continuing education course credit toward certificates of completion.

A number of frontline workers and job coaches reported renewed enthusiasm for their jobs, improved self-confidence, and new personal goals for education and career advancement. Due to their involvement in Jobs to Careers, some workers went on to enroll in college-level degree programs, such as the community college’s nursing program. Through its participation in the project, the community college now has a model for awarding credit to students for prior learning and work-based learning.

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“I think [Jobs to Careers] helps us with retention. It provides a higher caliber
of frontline employees. . . . The more knowledgeable your frontline
workers are, the more able they are to help you.”
—Administrator, Seton Family of Hospitals
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Training Outcomes

  • 48 workers enrolled in Jobs to Careers at 5 hospitals in 2 hospital systems, with 37 on a clinical assistant/patient care technician track and 11 on a patient access representative track.
  • 21 participants earned a Basic Clinical Technician certificate; 8 of those completed the requirements for an Advanced Clinical Technician certificate.
  • 28 clinical assistant/patient care technicians and 11 patient access representatives completed the transitions-to-college course.
  • 10 clinical assistant/patient care technicians and 6 patient access representatives completed the medical terminology course.
  • 10 of the patient access representative participants enrolled in the National Association of Healthcare Access Management course review.

Benefits to Frontline Employees

  • Renewed enthusiasm for their jobs
  • Improved self-confidence
  • New personal goals for education and career advancement

Benefits to Employers

  • Increased employee knowledge and skills
  • Increased employee satisfaction
  • A new recognition by leadership for the value of training frontline employees
  • A contextual learning tool to use in the development of frontline staff

Changes to Institutional Practice

  • Workforce Solutions added work-based learning to the menu of training options it considers funding.
  • The hospital systems incorporated some of the work-based learning modules into their orientation for all new hires for frontline jobs.
  • Austin Community College now allows learning competencies to be documented by hospital staff, using competency checklists for each module in the clinical technician educational sequences.