Allied Health Sollutions Summit a Great Success!

The Competitive Workforce Alliance's Allied Health Regional Skills Partnership Allied Health Solutions Summit was a great success!  The first annual Allied Health Solutions Summit was held in Concord,NC on Tuesday July 15,2008 at The Embassy Suites,from 9:30 am to 3:45 pm.

The Allied Health Solutions Summit had over 100 attendees that included employers,educators and workforce development professionals from across the region and the state.  It brought them together to hear from others who have successfully planned and implemented regional collaborations that have increased worker recruitment and developed allied health career pathways that have promoted worker retention and satisfaction.

The Summit opened with a welcome from David Hollars,Centralina Workforce Development Board Executive Director and Allied Health Regional Skills Partnership Workforce Intermediary.  David outlined the purpose of the Summit and introduced the guest speakers.

Patricia Fera from the Workforce Investment Board in Will County in Illinois and Jennifer Stasch from the Workforce Board of Northern Cook County in Illinois discussed their collaborative efforts in working with 9 workforce boards in the 11 county Chicago metropolitan region and how they succeeded in addressing workforce,training,and career development issues.

Joanna Pokaski from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston spoke to the group about how a major hospital created and implemented career ladder programs that worked.  She also discussed the rewards and challenges of creating new training programs and why employers should invest time,resources,and dollars into workforce development.

For the afternoon sessions participants could choose between two sessions.  The session titled "Systems Change: One Step at a Time," took an inside look at some of the metropolitan Chicago region's successful projects and showed how their challenges were resolved,how partnership were forged,and the lessons they learned along the way.

The "Prescription Filled: A Cure for the Pharmacist Shortage" session allowed participants to hear from a panel of six business and workforce partners from the Winston-Salem area who discussed their newly created solution to address the pharmacist shortage.

The closing session allowed attendees to complete a survey to indicate what were the best lessons learned.  Attendees also asked final questions of the presenters and were encouraged to sign up to participate in future meetings of the Allied Health Regional Skills Partnership.

The Allied Health Regional Skills Partnership Solutions Summit was generously sponsored by Carolinas HealthCare System,Novant Health,Integra Staffing,Bankston Partners,and the Competitive Workforce Alliance.  Workshop,break and lunch sponsors were Rowan Regional Medical Center,Charlotte Radiology,Stanly Regional Medical Center,Central Piedmont Community College,and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.

The Competitive Workforce Alliance would like to thank the wonderful guest speakers,the sponsors,and all of the individuals who participated in the first annual Allied Health Solutions Summit.  For more information on this groundbreaking initiative or to join the Allied Health Regional Skills Partnership please contact Emily Clamp at (704) 348-2732 or by email at eclamp@centralina.org.

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