Health care makes up approximately 12 percent of the region’s private sector employment and payroll and is projected to grow by at least 23 percent over the next 10 years.
WSW and its partners in the Columbia-Willamette Workforce Collaborative recently launched the 2018-2021 Healthcare Workforce Plan.
Over the past six months, CWWC convened employers, education partners and other health care stakeholders to learn about the specific needs of health care employers in the region and to identify potential ways of meeting those needs. The groups identified three priority areas and developed a plan to address the health care industry’s workforce challenges:
- Recruit and retain health care professionals
- Build a health care pipeline through employer and education partnerships
- Advance diversity, equity and inclusion in health care
These three goals come with outcomes that will ask employers and other healthcare industry experts to be involved in additional conversations about job readiness, diversity and equity, incumbent worker programs, and youth healthcare training. A health care panel will begin in August.
If you have any questions about the plan or are interested in being involved, contact Darcy Hoffman, Director of Business Services, at dhoffman@workforcesw.org.
