Governor Schwarzenegger’s successful public private partnerships to help 2,000 students gain employment in the healthcare field

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful public private partnerships under the California Nurse Education Initiative and the Governor’s Allied Health Initiative will continue to expand and implement academic programs within the health care professions beginning August 2009. These expanding college enrollments will help nearly 2,000 students gain employment in the Healthcare field.

The California Community Colleges will graduate over 869 additional RN graduates in the next five years as a result of the $60 Million California Nurse Education Initiative second round of funding.

Under the Governor’s $32 Million Allied Health Initiative, the California Community Colleges will expand enrollments on over 19 campuses, serving over 1,000 students in high demand allied health programs including respiratory therapy, radiology technician, health information technology, and dental hygiene programs. The University of California will expand its Pharmacy program at UCSF with match funding provided by the UCSF School of Medicine. Three of the CSU system campuses will expand their Clinical Laboratory Science program and one imaging specialist program as a result of this funding.

The Governor’s Nurse Education Initiative has added 23 new nursing programs in the past four years, for a total of 131 nursing education programs serving our students. Additionally, over 9,500 RNs graduated in 2008, reflecting a 54% increase in RN graduates in the past four years. As a comparison, there were 6,158 RN graduates in 2004. Over 23,500 students are currently enrolled in nursing programs, reflecting more than a 68% increase in enrollments in that same four year period

California continues to face 9,900 RNs job openings annually, with the number accumulating to 116,600 by 2020 according to Employment Development Department (EDD) statistics, due to the aging, growing population in need of health care services in California. California’s population is projected to grow from approximately 38.2 million people in 2008 to 43.1 million in 2018.

The California Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the EDD workforce projections include the need to educate over 206,000 additional healthcare professionals by 2014. In July, 2009, EDD reported that the health care workforce sector has the highest job growth rate, with a year-over job increase of 17,900 jobs in California.