Alaska health organization secures $9.7 million grant to train new workers

Alaska health care organizations have an injection of federal money to help recruit and train more workers to fill a variety of in-demand positions.

The Alaska Primary Care Association has won a $9.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Good Jobs Challenge program for a wide-ranging project to expand health care opportunities by training high school students and other entry-level candidates.

“Alaska’s healthcare workers have dealt with enormous adversity the last few years, and this funding will be a great boost to our workforce and to Alaskans who depend on our having a strong, vital healthcare system,” Nancy Merriman, chief executive officer of the Alaska Primary Care Association, said in a statement issued Monday. “APCA is excited to collaborate with Alaska community health centers and other key partners to expand workforce development programs statewide.”

The project, called Alaska’s Healthcare Workforce Pipeline, is designed to mobilize numerous partners to train 3,260 people and employ 2,270 new workers, according to the association’s application. The association is made up of the state’s community health centers.

The project seeks to recruit and train workers in all parts of the state, including rural and predominantly Native regions where there are difficult hurdles to overcome, the association’s application said.

“Alaska’s geography makes access to education, training, and apprenticeships a unique challenge. Urban areas have good access to work-based training, technology, and bandwidth, while most rural and remote communities do not,” the application said. “Travel to urban areas for training or sending instructors to regional hubs or villages is expensive and time consuming. There are also cultural differences and fewer resources available to people living in rural areas. They need more support to cover the cost of training, mentors, temporary housing, travel, meals, and childcare.”

The need in Alaska for new health care workers is dire, said Jared Kosin, president of the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association, one of the partner organizations in the grant. An analysis commissioned by his organization found that the state, as of last year, had 6,300 vacancies in the health care profession, with 1,400 of them specifically for nurses.

“Honestly, any job at this point is in pretty high demand,” Kosin said. “We have this huge hole.”

His association will use grant money to focus on apprenticeships, he said, particularly for certified nurse assistants and licensed practical nurses, positions on which health care workers can build to more advanced medical careers without leaving home. The goal is to provide on-the-job training “without taking them out of rotation, because if you take them out, you create another vacancy,” he said.

The Alaska Primary Care Association’s application was one of 32 nationally that won grants from the Good Jobs Challenge program, the Commerce Department said in its Aug. 3 announcement. Those winning proposals were selected out of 509 applicants, the department said.

Kosin said he believes some special Alaska circumstances – the cooperation among organizations that is necessary in a remote and small-population state – helped the application be selected as a grant winner.

“We all know each other. Everyone works with everyone,” he said.

The Good Jobs Challenge is a $500 million program managed by Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. The money came through the American Rescue Plan, legislation signed by President Biden in early 2021 that is intended to respond to the economic hardship created by the COVID-19 pandemic.