Training Partnership Attends White House UpSkill Summit

On Friday, April 24, SEIU Healthcare NW Training Partnership Executive Director, Charissa Raynor, attended the White House UpSkill America Summit, joining 150 businesses, labor unions, training funds, and other nonprofits who made commitments to support career advancement for millions of front-line workers.

The Training Partnership’s unique Advanced Home Care Aide Apprenticeship program, which gives workers an opportunity to gain new skills and raise wages, was highlighted by the UpSkill Summit as one of the innovative ways apprenticeship programs are being used in new and growing fields.

At the Summit, Executive Director Raynor served as a panelist with Alex Chisholm of Skylab Learning to share their work to develop online and game-based learning for Training Partnership students. The Training Partnership is launching a hybrid Basic Training class with a flipped classroom and game-based continuing education.

As part of these innovative efforts, the Training Partnership is also planning to launch experiments with online basic skills and English language acquisition later in the year.

Raynor said the Summit was an important step. “The convening was an important opportunity to launch scalable, sustainable solutions to improving basic skills for the U.S. workforce,” Raynor said.

The Training Partnership’s efforts to upskill the Home Care Aide workforce was previously recognized in a report last year by Vice President Joe Biden. The Training Partnership was highlighted for its commitment to train 3,000 Advanced Home Care Aide Registered Apprentices each year in five years.

Fact Sheet: Administration Announces New Commitments in Support of President Obama’s UpSkill Initiative to Empower Workers with Education and Training

Vice President’s Report: Ready to Work: Job-Driven Training and American Opportunity