It’s called “Earn and Learn,” and according to organizers, it’s the first of its kind. The goal is to enroll college students in the program which will help prepare them for a variety of jobs in the medical field.
Ivy Tech Community College, the University of Evansville and University of Southern Indiana are cooperating with Ascension St. Vincent and Deaconess Health System to create this unique approach to fill entry level jobs, and build a professional workforce.
The program seeks to create a talent pipeline between these institutions. This program was unveiled at a news event on Friday featuring leadership from all aforementioned institutions and the City of Evansville.
Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke pointed toward the existing success of the IU School of Medicine downtown.
“(Earn and Learn) is the next logical step in that progression coming together to provide medical education and helping our region grow in a really, really vital way,” he said.
Tyler Stock is the director of talent at the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership (EREP), which was instrumental in this collaboration.
“Earn and Learn is actually an approach that all three educational institutions will engage in. So this is actually providing direct employment to our two largest health care providers,” he said, adding that there will be seven areas of possible employment. “This will be a direct pipeline in terms of access to the hiring process for the post-secondary students that attend the university.”
Students enrolled in the program will also follow a professionalism curriculum and eventually earn a professionalism certificate.
Said Ivy Tech Community College of Evansville Chancellor Daniella Vidal, “we know that opportunities like Earn and Learn are critical, not just to provide our students with the technical knowledge of how to do those careers, but also those professional skills, those work ethic skills that we hear over and over from, from our partners.”
While the program just officially opened Monday, 14 students are currently enrolled.
Students can access this program through a QR code, which can link them to a hiring manager at Deaconess Health System, for example, who can discuss their career interests in the medical field — clinical and non-clinical.
Stock said the can then be walked though the basics of enrolling in the program.
“That's going to include a $15 an hour minimum pay from the two healthcare institutions that will include that professionalism certificate that's delivered in a cohort fashion.”
Stock says the QR codes have already been sent to college students.
Also present and speaking at the event were Tara Barney, CEO of the EREP, UE President Christopher Pietruzskiewicz, USI President Ronald Rochon, and Deaconess Health System CEO Linda White.
