Grant propels key TVCC program
College seeks more students interested in health care field
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Thursday, August 28, 2008 10:48 AM PDT
ONTARIO — After graduating its first group of students in the ESL-focused Certified Nursing Assistant program, Treasure Valley Community College is looking for more people just learning English or grappling with other academic challenges to enroll in programs designed to help them obtain employable skills and move on toward a career in the health care field.
A statewide initiative — dubbed Career Pathways — provides funding for short-term training opportunities, and the college applied and received grant money from the program to help develop agendas for English-language learners in the CNA and welding programs TVCC public information officer Abby Lee said. The college will be offering a pre-CNA class in the fall, which will be followed by a CNA class in the winter.
“This class is open not just to English-language learners, but anyone who may struggle academically,” Mona Curtis, TVCC ESL coordinator, said. “The pre-CNA class will be coupled with a home aide class, so students will receive a home health aide certificate at the end of the fall quarter, regardless of where they enter the winter class.”
The class is taught in English, but there is assistance for those who struggle with understanding the medical terminology. Students have more time to study the material and are able to study as a group, Lee said.
“Its is not a bi-lingual class,” she said. Hopefully the students will become interested in moving forward through the nursing program and become LPNs or RNs, Lee said.
“These are bright and ambitious students,” Lee said. When applying for the grant, health care agencies were surveyed about areas they felt college needed to focus on, Lee said. Bilingual health care workers was a key issue for the agencies.
TVCC is currently working, in conjunction with Holy Rosary Medical Center, on a medical assistant program.
For more information about upcoming pre-CNA class to be offered this contact Curtis at (541) 881-8822, ext. 316.
