Healthcare
In December 2002, the Chicago Workforce Board launched a Healthcare Industry Summit to both bring attention to workforce challenges the industry was facing and identify key leaders with the resources, talent and commitment necessary to overcome them. The Board and staff then worked with industry to unpack “the healthcare workforce crisis”, focusing on healthcare industry trends, and human resources and training needs.
By 2004, the Board began to pilot solutions ranging from helping K-12 and post-secondary education and workforce professionals learn about the industry to convening events where healthcare professionals could share effective recruiting, hiring and retention practices. The Board—in partnership with The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Public Schools, the Illinois Hospital Association, the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council and the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources—also launched a multi-media campaign (“The Other Side of The Stethoscope”) designed to introduce Chicago’s middle-school students and their parents and teachers to emerging career opportunities in healthcare.
This year, the Board brought together a number of its healthcare industry partners to showcase accomplishments since the 2002 summit and share lessons learned, best practices, and current projects. The Workforce Boards of Metropolitan Chicago has posted a summary of the event proceedings.
These pilot projects have:
- Connected leaders from industry, workforce, and education to each other so they can collaborate in developing sustainable solutions to the healthcare industry’s structural workforce challenges, while providing opportunities for Chicagoans looking to build great careers in growing industries;
- Attracted resources to programs, people and communities that need them; and
- Enabled the Board to work with its corporate and community partners in strategic ways—removing critical barriers and building important bridges—so people and opportunity find each other faster; and
- Cultivated interest in healthcare careers among diverse and talented Chicagoans.