Holyoke Community College Awarded $500,000 Grant to Train Medical Assistants
HOLYOKE — Holyoke Community College (HCC) received a $500,000 state grant to train medical assistants to work in area hospitals.
The grant to HCC is part of $6.8 million in workforce development grants to 15 organizations that were announced this week by the Healey-Driscoll administration. The Senator Kenneth J. Donnelly Workforce Success Grants are funded by the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development and administered by Commonwealth Corp. through the state’s Workforce Competitive Trust Fund.
With the $500,000 grant to HCC, the college will provide training and placement services to 60 unemployed and underemployed participants and incumbent workers for medical assistant positions. The college’s partners in the grant include Baystate Medical Center and Valley Health Systems/Holyoke Medical Center.
Jeffrey Hayden, HCC’s vice president of Business and Community Services, said the grant seeks to help alleviate the increasing industry demand for credentialed medical assistants.
“It’s an area of need,” he noted. “Medical assistants work in doctor’s offices. Often, they are the ones who come and take your medical history, they run the scheduling, and, on the critical care side, they are also there on hospital floors, doing similar types of work.”
Hayden said HCC has been training medical assistants for Baystate and Valley Medical Center for many years, and the grant will allow that work to continue.
“We see this as an opportunity for somebody to get an entry-level job in healthcare and then come back to us for more education and training and make it a career,” he explained. “It’s similar to the work we do with CNAs (certified nursing assistants). We want to see them climb up the ladder. That can be in administration, it can be in nursing, or it can be in some other allied health field.”
Altogether, the 15 grant recipients will provide training and placement services to more than 1,100 individuals in Massachusetts. HCC was one of only three community colleges in the state to receive awards. The others were Greenfield Community College ($417,997 for 48 early childhood educator positions) and Quinsigamond Community College ($499,610 for 60 certified nursing assistants). HCC and GCC were the only institutions in Western Mass. to receive grants.
“The Workforce Success Grants continue our commitment to supporting our workers and providing access to good-paying jobs and long-term career success,” Gov. Maura Healey said. “By providing job training and upskilling for underemployed and unemployed job seekers, we are helping unlock potential, strengthening competitiveness, and connecting our world-class talent with innovative companies across the state.”
The HCC medical assistant training program is expected to begin in September.