SACRAMENTO, California, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — In an effort to increase the number of bilingual allied healthcare workers in California, Futuro Health is recruiting 1,000 Spanish speakers from across the state for a tuition-free, industry-specific online English course.
There are more than 200 languages spoken in California, and 44% of California households speak a language other than English. Of those, 28% report Spanish as their primary language. Additionally, nearly 7 million Californians report they speak English “less than very well.”
Allied health roles include a wide range of clinical, administrative and support functions, such as medical assistants, certified nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, radiology technicians, care coordinators, health IT specialists, licensed vocational nurses and others. In California alone, there is a demand for an estimated 500,000 new allied healthcare workers between now and 2024.
“There are healthcare employers who would prefer that more bilingual candidates knock on their door,” Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan said. “For the future of care to be equitable, we need the workforce to reflect the communities being served – especially as California grows and greys.”
To help boost the number of allied healthcare workers who speak English well, Futuro Health and its partner Voxy, which provides online task-based English-language learning courses, have teamed up to offer the English for Allied Health course. This course equips students with the English vocabulary they will need to work in allied healthcare roles.
“The pandemic has shed light on health disparities,” explained Executive Vice President, UNITE-LA, Alma Salazar. “Part of the solution is to have those who live locally serve their community. This training is an example of how to open up access for more to consider healthcare roles.”
The course is open to native Spanish speakers who want to improve their English in order to perform better in their current care-related role or to prepare for an allied healthcare program of study. Course topics include introduction to allied healthcare, scheduling and billing, medical history, basic nursing skills and much more.
Both the tuition and the registration fees are waived for 2020. Students will only pay $20 per month for their education and training membership. Students may sign up for the English for Allied Health course at any time and create a profile on the Futuro Health website to register for these fall 2020 start dates: August 10, August 24, September 7, October 5, November 2 and December 7.
“Monolingual Spanish-speaking patients, especially elders, are often hesitant to freely express their concerns during medical visits. Through this program at Futuro Health, we can build and strengthen the English language skills that Latinx healthcare workers need to provide empathy and care for patients navigating the English-speaking healthcare environment,” said Hortencia Armendariz, board member for Futuro Health and leader of the Healthcare Justice Division of SEIU-UHW.
Futuro Health’s goal is to graduate 10,000 new licensed and/or credentialed allied healthcare workers by 2024 to meet the growing need.
“Because of our commitment to fully serve our diverse client base, we have a great need for good vocational English programming, and we’re delighted to find Futuro Health already partnered with the same provider we would have chosen,” said Blake Konczal, executive director of the Fresno Regional Workforce Development Board. “In many instances, industry-driven vocational training is de facto inaccessible to many clients because such offerings are not coordinated with appropriate Vocational English as a Second Language Program classes.”
About
Futuro Health improves the health and wealth of communities by growing the largest network of credentialed allied health workers in the nation starting in California. We believe investing in education and skills training and retraining results in better-paying jobs for workers, better service for patients and better workers for employers to hire. Kaiser Permanente and Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) partnered to establish Futuro Health in January 2020 with a $130 million commitment.
Contact: Celina Shands | 858-735-2883
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SOURCE Futuro Health
