Community Partnership: Developed programs to provide English Acquisition students the opportunity to explore health care careers

Background: English as a Second Language (ESL) high school students who have difficulty acquiring needed English language skills lack opportunities to pursue meaningful careers in a health care setting. Purpose: Out of the partnership that was developed between the Bethlehem Area School District, St. Luke's Hospital & Health Network, and the Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board, Inc., a School-To-Work (STW) program and other health career exploratory programs, the Health Career Exploration (HCEP) and Next Step(NSP) programs, were developed to provide an avenue for at-risk students to increase graduation rates, improve English language skills, explore healthcare careers, provide work experience, develop job seeking and job keeping skills as well as to diversify the healthcare workforce. Significance: Over the past 14 years the partnerships have been committed to improving educational achievement for at-risk youth, and the programs have grown into a multi-year step approach that is aimed at academic achievement, career exploration, and job skill development. Findings/Results: 95% of the STW participants graduated high school. 74% enrolled in post-secondary education, with 27% having completed college degrees and 43% employed in health related careers. 100% of the HCEP participants graduated from high school and 45% of the NSP participants have obtained unsubsidized employment. Since the programs inception, twenty-one former participants are currently employed by St. Luke's Hospital. Conclusion: As a result of these partnerships, ESL students have been given the opportunity to explore a wide variety of careers in the healthcare field, pursue higher education, and have diversified the healthcare workforce.