In a recent op-ed appearing in The Herald News in Fall River, MA, Nancy Paull, CEO of Stanley Street Treatment and Resources in Fall River, describes how implementing a work-based learning program in partnership with the local community college created positive outcomes for the organization, patients and employees. SSTAR is one of the employers participating in the Jobs to Careers program.
SSTAR employees share their own experiences with the training program Ms. Paull describes.
Frederick Rocco, Ph.D. Dean of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Bristol Community College discusses the impact on community colleges
The article is excerpted below. (Click here to read the full article.)
Guest Opinion: Cultivating Our Own Resources
By Nancy Paull, Aug 06, 2010
Fall River has not been rich for a long time. Less than one-quarter of our population holds advanced degrees. Yet we have a hard-working population that has always gravitated toward work in a few fields: construction, education and health care. Health care is one of the few fields still out there that is expected to not only remain steady, but to grow, generating more than 3.2 million new jobs in the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And yet, in order for our population to compete for these jobs, we need to provide them with professional, marketable skills.
Around the same time our economy began to plummet, Stanley Street Treatment and Resources in Fall River (SSTAR) was fortunate enough to begin a comprehensive training program called the Jobs to Career Program, to provide our front-line health care workers with advanced training and education. Most of the women enrolled in the program had barely graduated high school or obtained their GEDs, had only minimal levels of training but had been working in the addiction treatment field for many years. As providers, they had good skills and a genuine dedication toward helping our clients. Their limited levels of education and training did not allow them to advance in their careers; and admittedly, left them in the dark about many of the complex psychological and behavioral problems they witnessed on a daily basis at the facility. Likewise, these factors often caused them to be insecure about what they could do.
These women were offered a training and educational program tailored directly to their economic, social and cultural needs. Classes were offered on-site at SSTAR that did not interfere with their work or home obligations, and at Bristol Community College. These were supplemented with peer study groups, culturally relevant coursework tailored by BCC faulty members and SSTAR professionals, and a host of other support service including counseling and private tutoring. The enrolled women all took a test to become certified addiction counselors.
The result of this training was phenomenal. The women who were trained through the program obtained certification and are now qualified for higher-paying, higher-skilled jobs. I was able to witness transformations that occurred within the women who trained in the program, which were deeply personal, boosting their self esteem. Women who doubted they could make it through high school are now focused on pursuing their master's degrees. Mothers can envision a life where they can work one job instead of three to support their children.
Likewise, these women were able to treat patients with a much higher degree of competency. This advanced training gave the women—who had always had a firm grasp of client's needs over the years—to allow them to develop new programs within SSTAR. These include a program that supports more family intervention and another that offers counseling to addicts for a period of time after they have completed detox successfully
I mention the Jobs to Career program because through it, we have developed a model that is accessible and could be tailor-made to fit the needs of any organization. We have already assisted several organizations in adapting our model to suit their needs. Anyone interested in such a program can contact us at SSTAR. I urge everyone, whether they are interested in our model or not, to consider on-site, workplace-based training as part of their organization's future.
All the old career models have shifted over the past several years. Hundreds of thousands of students graduate from schools with advanced degrees, a lifetime of debt and few marketable skills. In today's world, workplace-based training in fields that will continue to grow because they are vital to our population's needs are one of the few career goals that make sense.
(Copyright 2010 The Herald News)
