CareerSource Northeast Florida (CareerSource NEFL) is well known for helping people find employment in the surrounding counties (Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns), but CareerSource NEFL also helps companies identify and recruit employees – and even provides funding support for employer training to help employees hone their skills to stay competitive or move up in their professional career path.
This support includes CareerSource NEFL Customized Training, where employers can receive funding for a portion of the training cost needed to help them meet specific training needs at their company – specifically companies in the healthcare, advanced manufacturing, transportation and logistics, information technology and finance industries.
Carol Cullen, CareerSource NEFL’s healthcare sector manager, says CareerSource NEFL can help medical employers from the start of the hiring process by assisting with identifying and recruiting talent, then may be able to help reimburse a portion of the costs in providing training to keep them “upskilled to help both the company and the employee.”
For example, CareerSource NEFL used customized training to help fill a critical gap in the medical workforce faced by the University of Florida Jacksonville Physicians, Inc. (UFJPI) by teaming with Florida State College of Jacksonville (FSCJ) to help develop qualified candidates for Medical Assistants/Customer Service Representatives (MA/CSRs) positions.
“All local hospitals and medical practices are competing for the small number of graduates from local MA/CSR training programs, so we suggested they consider ‘growing their own’ MA/CSRs,” Cullen said. “As a result, we coordinated with UFJPI and FSCJ as they developed a training program that could provide current employees with the skills needed to transition to a medical assistant career.”
Trainees were selected from UFJPI customer service and administrative teams, and most made less than $13 an hour. In the end of the first training cycle, students completed training to hold the hybrid title MA/CSR. Cullen says every trainee received at least a three-percent raise after graduation.
“The students did not pay for their training out of pocket since we were able to reimburse the employer (UFJPI) for the cost of tuition,” she said. “We’re here to help businesses identify and help fund training for current employees to help them move along career paths within their own companies. I encourage medical business owners to contact us, whether it’s in recruiting employees or helping their employees learn new skills to advance in the healthcare field.”
Cullen can be reached at ccullen@careersourcenefl.com or by phone at 904-798-0060, extension 2214.
In addition to talent identification, recruitment and providing funding for training CareerSource NEFL
provides a wide range of other services to job seekers – including job leads, access to labor market and salary information, assessments and computer resources for updating resumes and conducting internet research.