HAMPTON, Va. – When Virginia Health Services needed help providing Certified Nurse Aide training for a much-requested evening class, Virginia Peninsula Community College had the solution.
The College, through its Workforce Development department, would provide the instructors for a nighttime cohort.
“It’s my responsibility to reach out to businesses in the community to let them know about the resources that we have here at the College,” said Dr. Adrienne E. Cosby, the Director of Business Solutions and Corporate Training and Development at VPCC.
VHS offers daytime classes for CNA training through its own educators but doesn’t have an option for people who work during the day and want to take classes at night. VPCC has more options and resources available for people who work alternative hours.
“Virginia Peninsula has access to additional grants (through FastForward) and things for the people that are taking the class,” said VHS President and CEO Mark Klyczek, adding having a good partnership with a local community college can expand his organization’s reach.
Cosby initially reached out to VHS to discuss what the College offers in the way “soft skills,” i.e., job readiness training, conflict resolution, creative problem-solving, dealing with change and stress. What came out of that, Cosby said, was VHS asking if the College could provide a night CNA program. She put VHS in touch with Franz Albertini, director of enrollment and retention for Workforce Development, Eddie Swain, program director for Workforce Development, and VPCC’s nursing educators to work out the details.
Applicants apply through VHS and complete eligibility requirements with VPCC.
Klyczek, Colleen Reynolds, senior recruiter for VHS, and Swain recently held an information session for a handful of students interested in the program.
Those students already passed a VHS application process and will be paid ($14-$16 an hour) for their training once classes start as they will be considered part-time employees. The students can keep their day jobs. Upon successful completion of the class, the students are guaranteed a job with VHS, which has seven nursing and rehabilitation centers and three senior living communities in southeastern Virginia. The students, in turn, have a 12-month employment obligation to VHS.
The first cohort of evening classes begins in early April and lasts eight weeks, including hands-on clinical experience.
This is the first such collaboration between a college and a health system on the Peninsula, according to Klyczek. However, there is a similar program, called the Blue Ridge Partnership for Health Science Careers, in the western part of the state.
The VPCC/VHS partnership addresses training and employment needs in the healthcare field, which have skyrocketed since the pandemic.
“For us to start it here on the Peninsula is going to be unique to the whole Tidewater region,” Klyczek said. “Virginia Health Services is a registered apprenticeship program through Virginia, so we have all the assets, and now to expand it to Virginia Peninsula really helps us train even more people every year. And it gives more people access to healthcare jobs, which have fantastic growth opportunity.”
CNA is the only class being offered now through the arrangement, but VHS is looking into adding others.
“We’re definitely going down the path with you guys on LPN (licensed practical nurse) and RN (registered nurse) training, as well,” Klyczek said, noting he likes the flexibility the agreement with VPCC offers as well as increasing the talent pool.
“We’re just very excited,” Klyczek added. “Everything starts with one. We will get this first class done and it will continue to multiply, which I think will be great.”
Cosby said the collaboration is a perfect example of VPCC being able to fill what she calls “gaps” in training and education. She is looking to identify a local plumbing business to partner with in the same way. VPCC’s plumbing program was discontinued after it moved out of the Goodwill Center in Hampton and will restart when the College’s new Southeast Newport News Trades Center is built. Until then, she wants to fill the gap, there too.
“It enhances the training and the credential opportunities for the businesses, and we are in fact aligning ourselves with what the businesses in the community are looking for,” Cosby said. “We’re not saying, ‘This is what you need.’”
It’s the opposite.
“We are in fact providing … what the employers are looking for and what jobseekers are looking for as well,” she said. “We are keeping up with what the employers need and what our economy needs.”