CAEL Launches Veterans Healthcare Career Pathways Initiative & Website
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Innovative Program Helps Returning Veterans

  Transition into Careers in Healthcare

 

(Chicago – June 24, 2015) – Returning veterans in Illinois interested in pursuing a career in healthcare should be sure to visit the Veterans Healthcare Pathways Initiative (VHCP) website at http://vethealthcarejobs.org/. The site is designed to help returning veterans with healthcare-related military experience transition into long-term careers in healthcare, Pamela Tate, CEO and president of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) announced today. Also, CAEL is working with a network of colleges and universities to promote best practices in serving student veterans who enroll in healthcare programs. The initiative was created by CAEL, with support from the Michael Reese Health Trust and in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs and the Illinois Department of Employment Security. It provides a suite of tools to help returning veterans identify, develop and implement career pathways that ultimately lead them to a new career in the healthcare field. 

In discussing the initiative, Tate said, “As the armed services continue its largest draw down in decades, Illinois veterans are returning home with valuable skills. Their military training counts and these skills should be leveraged to help them transition into the workforce. Our initiative builds the bridge between their experience and the civilian degrees and credentials they’ll need to find gainful entry into the healthcare workforce. The VHCP Initiative helps them learn about careers in the healthcare industry and how the knowledge and experience they bring from their military service can help them move more quickly into meaningful careers.” 

The IDVA estimates that 35,000 new veterans will return to Illinois between 2013 and 2017, and currently Illinois has the 10th largest veteran population in the United States.  The website provides information on different careers in the healthcare industry and general information about returning to college in Illinois. They will also learn about tools such as Prior Learning Assessment (PLA). PLA is a term used by colleges and universities to designate learning gained outside of a traditional college classroom. Through it, veterans can earn credit for their military experience saving both time and money.  

Added Tate, “One aspect of the initiative is exploring ways to accelerate pathways to credentials for those veterans who gained college level learning through their service. Military to civilian PLA saves student veterans tuition dollars and time otherwise spent in the classroom.”

Ryan Burkhart joined the Marines after high school and served in the elite Marine Security Guard and was stationed in Austria and Canada. After leaving the Marines, he returned to Kentucky and enrolled at Northern Kentucky University (NKU). The university’s faculty and staff assisted Ryan in how to turn what he learned from his military experience into academic credit. NKU reviewed Ryan’s military transcript using American Council on Education (ACE) credit recommendations and accepted 30 credits toward graduation. It helped him earn his degree in organizational leadership that much faster.

 

Maria Rahming was a Hospital Corpsman and a Surgical Technologist in the Navy who is currently attending DePaul University for Nursing. “I’ve already been working for 20 years and I didn’t want to start all over.  Luckily, since I was already in healthcare a lot of it is transferable into college credit,\" she said. 

 

Concluded Tate, “Through this initiative returning veterans with healthcare experience can easily access all the tools they need to begin a prosperous and rewarding career quickly in civilian healthcare. We are very excited about this work and hope that those who have served our nation so selflessly find it valuable.”

 

 

The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization based in Chicago, Illinois that assists adults with their educational endeavors, finding practical ways to help them earn college credit for learning acquired through life and work experiences toward the completion of a postsecondary degree. CAEL works with the public sector, private sector industries, and higher education institutions to ensure that adult students receive the most efficient training and education to occupy a meaningful professional place in a 21st-century economy. Since 1974, CAEL has assisted colleges and universities to develop programs that evaluate adults’ non-collegiate learning for college credit. CAEL is the recognized national expert on a method known as portfolio assessment, and its Ten Standards for Assessing Learning are used by colleges and universities, as well as accrediting organizations, across the country. More information is available at www.cael.org. Follow CAEL on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CAELnews or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CAELnews.