Wisconsin health care organizations invest in apprenticeship programs to help fill vacancies
Using a massive “slit” microscope, Anna Liegel examines aspects of the human eye most people don't see: the tendril-like muscles of the iris or the occasional nevus, a freckle on the eye.
Only a few weeks after beginning the nine-month ophthalmic assistant program at Madison Area Technical College, Liegel works in an eye clinic, gets paid $18 an hour and has health insurance. And she’s not paying tuition for a program that otherwise costs an estimated $5,244.
Why? Because she’s an apprentice, not a traditional student.
Wisconsin health care organizations are increasingly willing to invest in employees' education through programs like that one in exchange for filling jobs. One reason is because the state is projected to see 32,000 job openings annually through 2030 as baby boomers age out of the workforce without enough younger workers to replace them.
Health care has traditionally been a “stable, recession-proof, attractive and visible” industry with pathways into jobs, said Ann Zenk with the Wisconsin Hospital Association. She tracks the push for apprenticeships to the mid-2010s.
Largely, that's because of the need for more workers. But she said employers are also increasingly aware of the need to be more flexible to grow the workforce. And today's workforce is five-generational, with younger people looking for more flexible paths into jobs, she said.
“(They) don’t want to invest a mortgage in an education, necessarily. And so I think apprenticeships are more appealing to them than maybe my generation, that might say, well, ‘A registered nurse isn’t a plumber. (They) can’t be an apprentice,’" she said. "Well, they’re willing to look at that, (to) be more flexible than us boomers were.”
That’s the case for Liegel, who said four-year degrees were the push when she was growing up in the small town of Spring Green. She’s happy to have gotten a bachelor’s degree in speech therapy, but wishes she had considered a different type of program. Now she wants to switch careers, but is still paying off loans.
It's why an apprenticeship made sense, she said.
“I feel like there’s not a whole lot of knowledge, at least where I come from, of things like this,” she said.
Apprentices get clinical experience, classes at the same time
Statewide, 122 people work in registered health care apprenticeships through the state as medical assistants, pharmacy technicians, direct support professionals, ophthalmic assistants, caregivers, lab animal caretaker technicians and registered nurses, according to the Department of Workforce Development.
As registered apprenticeships, those programs last for one year or 2,000 hours and include 144 hours of related education. Health care organizations might also create shorter, apprenticeship-style programs for other health care jobs.
Not all health care organizations are advertising their apprenticeships — in part to avoid being flooded with applications for new programs, according to the DWD. But organizations like UW Health, Froedtert Health, SSM Health and Children's Wisconsin are all using the apprenticeship model.
No matter the organization, apprenticeship programs generally have a few core components: apprentices' education is paid for by a "sponsor" in exchange for an employment commitment. They are paid an hourly wage, and learn on the job at the same time as they take classes.
For example, Liegel is an apprentice with SSM Health; in exchange for getting her educational costs paid for, she agreed to work for SSM for two years. She began working in an eye clinic in August, around the same time classes began at Madison College.
More: These free Wisconsin programs will pay your way to a job in healthcare
Many jobs are for entry-level positions, but career 'ladders' could expand
Angela Gray is Liegel’s instructor at Madison College. She said there’s a major need for more ophthalmologic assistants and technologists, but it’s a relatively under-the-radar health care job.
“A lot of things occur as we age, with the eyes. When people hire trained technicians, they can do a lot of preliminary testing for the doctors so they can see more patients,” she said.
Like most apprenticeship programs in Wisconsin, certified ophthalmic assistant (COA) is also an entry-level job. Nationally, it pays an average of $19 an hour. A national database of health care-related apprenticeships is mostly made up of entry-level jobs, although not entirely.
The goal of many apprenticeship-style programs is to get more people into entry-level jobs, then see them level up to others. For example, after an apprentice becomes a COA, the ladder climbs to an average pay of $26 and $31 hourly, respectively, for certified ophthalmic technicians and certified ophthalmic medical technologists.
That's a main reason why UW Health’s apprenticeship for registered nursing is unique both statewide and in the U.S. Apprentices begin working as nursing assistants, and by the end of the four-year program can hold credentials as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) and registered nurse (RN) with an associate’s degree.
Program accreditation, planning come with up-front costs — but also increase staff diversity, reduce turnover
UW Health created a department focused on creating career pathways for jobs with "critical workforce needs" in 2016. At the time it had about 15 people, including trainees.
Now, it has nearly 400.
UW Health established the state's first registered apprenticeship program for medical assistants in 2018, which now sees through up to 80 apprentices annually. The pharmacy technician program takes 48 apprentices, and nursing assistant program, up to 90.
Its other programs are smaller and growing, like those for cardiovascular technologists and ophthalmic assistants. The registered nursing program launched in April with 16 apprentices, all of whom were previously UW Health employees.
Getting those apprenticeships up and running comes with costs, like making sure the programs are accredited and lead to specific credentials. UW has used state Fast Forward grants to get programs off the ground, as well as a $10 million donation from Epic Systems, the Wisconsin-based medical records company.
Turnover for apprentices is less than 5%, compared to between 18% and 33% for staff who begin a UW Health job with outside credentials, said Bridgett Willey, who oversees the careers-focused department at UW. Because apprentices learn on the job, they also work — offsetting tasks that other employees would need to complete.
The programs also help diversity of the health care workforce, Willey said, which she sees as another return on investment. UW's nursing apprenticeship, for example, is designed to support racially, ethically and socio-economically diverse health care staff.
“Our team has always taken the approach that we can’t just do one thing to solve the shortages. We have to take, definitely, a multipronged approach if we ever expect to have an impact here,” Willey said.
Cleo Krejci covers higher education, vocational training and retraining as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: More WI healthcare organizations investing in apprenticeships
