With 28% of California's households reporting that Spanish is their primary language, we at Futuro Health believe the healthcare workforce should reflect the communities that need care. To better serve their communities, many health centers and community clinics prefer to hire bilingual speakers.

Futuro Health is recruiting 1,000 Spanish speakers in California for its English for Allied Health course. (Spanish version of news release). Offered through Futuro Health partner Voxy, this course can be the first step for many to build their language confidence. The course is for native Spanish speakers who need to improve their English vocabulary, especially around the technical terms they hear every day on the job.

Students complete short lessons at their own pace and even on-the-go with the mobile app. Even better is that Futuro Health is waiving tuition for the course and the registration fee. Students can take it in 2020 for only a $20/membership fee for education and training. Course topics include introduction to allied healthcare, scheduling and billing, medical history, basic nursing skills and much more. After completing the course, students will still need to pursue an education program that leads to a credential, as is usually required in healthcare.

“Monolingual Spanish-speaking patients, especially elders, are often hesitant to freely express their concerns during medical visits. Through the Voxy 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, Futuro Health Board member and leader of SEIU-UHW’s Healthcare Justice Division.

Futuro Health plans to offer the course for speakers in additional languages in the future.

Futuro Health CEO Appointed to Board of National Student Clearinghouse

Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan was recently named to the Board of Directors of the National Student Clearinghouse.

The Clearinghouse is the trusted source for and leading provider of higher education verifications and electronic education record exchanges. The Clearinghouse serves as a single point of contact for the collection and timely exchange of accurate and comprehensive enrollment, degree, and certificate records on behalf of its more than 3,600 participating higher education institutions, which represent 98 percent of all students in public and private U.S. institutions. The Clearinghouse also provides thousands of high schools and districts with continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics on their alumni.

Ton-Quinlivan’s appointment comes as the Clearinghouse is evolving its data and information “beyond traditional education to provide a more holistic data driven view of education, skills, and workforce pathways to better directly serve lifelong learners, and institutions of learning and enterprise.”

“I am excited to join the board of the Clearinghouse at a time when higher education is reinventing itself, not only in light of the shift to online but also in relationship to workforce needs,” Ton-Quinlivan said. “Having shaped data tools while with the California Community Colleges and continuing that emphasis on data here at Futuro Health, I look forward to contributing my insights and expertise.”

Q&A: Futuro Health’s Approach to Data Science Explained

Data science is a shared emphasis at Futuro Health. Since our inception in January 2020, our data-collection efforts have amassed 455,000 data points to feed into models to evaluate student success. When we follow this data along a student’s journey, along with the human touches of coaches, instructors and sponsors, we gain a more holistic view of what pathway a student can take to become successful.

Futuro Health’s Chief Data Scientist is Anthony Dalton, who previously served as lead data scientist for a non-profit that analyzed massive data sets related to education in Texas and California.

In this Q&A, Dalton explains Futuro Health’s approach to data science:

Q: What is Futuro Health's approach to data science and its philosophy around data?
A: Our approach to data science is reproducible and accurate information that can be explained with high utility. We want to produce qualified and diverse students who have the required training and high emotional intelligence to enter the allied health field and thrive.

Q: What kind of data does Futuro Health capture and maintain?
A: We monitor a growing list of indicators, ranging from student demographics, historical achievements, experience, preferences and more.

Q: How do you use this data toward your mission of credentialing more allied healthcare workers?
A: At this point, we use data to pair a qualified student with an education provider and the student supports that can help them be successful. Which career best matches the candidate based on how they filled out their profile? Which option is their best starting point to on-ramp to their education journey? Do they need additional support in career-related English? Which clinical internship will they have proximity to based on their geolocation?

Q: Why is data science so important to Futuro Health’s work?
A: Our nation and state need an expanded allied healthcare workforce. The skillsets are ever-changing. California is growing and graying. Futuro Health is working to get ahead of a tremendous workforce shortage. Data science is critical for recruiting, monitoring, evaluating and motivating students along their educational journey.

Student Spotlight: Alexia Turns Job Loss into Positive Opportunity

Alexia was working in shipping and receiving for a small cosmetology company in Union City, California, when the coronavirus hit. She lost her job, like so many others.

She didn’t have to think long about her next move. It turns out a friend who works for Kaiser Permanente told her about Futuro Health’s Medical Assistant program. Alexia applied to the program and was accepted.

“Now I have enough time to study and not stress about work,” she said.

Alexia was last enrolled in school in 2018 but dropped out when her fiancé passed away from complications related to Type I diabetes. That loss, combined with friends and family who work in the medical field, have spurred her interest in a healthcare career.

“That’s what made me motivated to learn about the medical field, and with my friends helping me, that’s what is making my journey be more on track,” she said.

Earlier this month, she started her first online course at Bay Area Medical Academy (BAMA), one of Futuro Health’s higher education partners. She is taking Introduction to Medical Terminology, the first of two Jump Start courses that are prerequisites to the Medical Assistant program.

The first week at BAMA was challenging, as she became reacquainted with studying, but it also held a surprise: Alexia didn’t think online learning would be so easy.

“This is my first time ever taking an online class because I like to be in the physical class,” she explained. “I thought it was going to be harder than what it is, but I actually find it a lot better because I can take my time and study at my own pace.”

Alexia’s advice to others who may be considering a health career is to seize the moment:

“Due to the COVID-19 and the fact that we have to stay home, this is kind of a blessing in disguise, where we actually have time to study and to learn, so use this time that we have as much as you can to better yourself and try to make something positive out of a negative situation.”