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 a number of allied health roles in demand that 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.

"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."

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 24, September 7, October 5, November 2 and December 7.

To help you spread the word, Futuro Health has created a toolkit of materials to help easily share information with your job seekers and American Job Centers. At this link just enter your name/email to access the tools: https://bit.ly/2WJeLLF

Toolkit Contents:

Learn more about the English Readiness program at https://futurohealth.org/allied-health-programs/english-prep/