Bluegrass Workforce Investment Board

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Industry Partnership Awarded to BGWIB!

The Bluegrass Workforce Investment Board (BGWIB) received one of three industry partnership grants awarded by the Kentucky Workforce Investment Board.  The grants were awarded to industry partnerships that are comprised of a consortium of employer representatives, and where possible, employee associations, organized labor, and representatives from workforce.

The BGWIB’s Bluegrass Partnering Healthcare Initiative for Tomorrow was awarded $65,000 to bring the major healthcare stakeholders (government, industry, healthcare workers, and non-profits) together, as a region, to build a unified, regional workforce plan for the healthcare sector.  Through community resource mapping the Bluegrass Healthcare Consortium (BHC) will be able to develop a strategy for promoting interagency collaboration thus aligning workforce development programs and services related to healthcare.

Lynette Walker, BHC member and Director of Human Resources at Central Baptist Hospital, said, “With continual changes in the healthcare industry and its needs, it will become even more imperative for organizations to address workforce development with a multi-faceted plan.  To be successful, we will need to work collaboratively with education, government, consumers, and employees to address factors including decreased enrollment in healthcare education programs and the graying of current healthcare professionals.  With the Industry Partnership Grant, the BHC will begin to work on such a plan.”

The BGWIB has determined the healthcare sector to be one of the top priority sectors in the Bluegrass Area.  The BHC was formed in November 2010 by dedicated HR professionals from Bluegrass Area healthcare facilities and is supported by the BGWIB.  The development of the employer led consortium was a result of decreasing resources common to all regional healthcare entities, a desire for the provision of a united front to facilitate grant applications, a think tank for pending legislation, and an attempt to minimize duplication of efforts and to ensure future workforce needs are anticipated.

“The community resource map will provide valuable information on the status of the employment, skills needs and training initiatives across the Bluegrass healthcare industries, which will allow us, working collaboratively with the BGWIB, to build support for needed services and resources in the community,” said Walker.  “We are very excited and honored to have been chosen!”