JOHNS HOPKINS HEALTH SYSTEM TO GRADUATE 77 EMPLOYEES AS PART OF PROJECT REACH PROGRAM

Johns Hopkins Medicine
Office of Corporate Communications
Contact:  Gary Stephenson
Phone:  (410) 955-5384
Email:  [email protected]

Tuesday, September 21, 2005

JOHNS HOPKINS HEALTH SYSTEM TO GRADUATE 77 EMPLOYEES AS PART OF PROJECT REACH PROGRAM

The Johns Hopkins Health System and Hospital will hold a graduation ceremony this Thursday, Sept. 22, at 1 p.m. in Hurd Hall for 77 graduates of Project REACH (Resources and Education for the Advancement of Careers at Hopkins.)

The project, designed to boost job skills and advancement opportunities for existing workers, is funded by a grant awarded under President Bush’s High Growth Job Training Initiative and administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. 

Since July 2004, when the $3 million grant was implemented at Hopkins, more than 400 employees have enrolled in the 18-month program, which helps employees gain the education and training they need to advance their business skills or upgrade their career skills for jobs such as clinical associate, digital film clerk, lab technician or patient service coordinator. Others earned their general equivalency degrees or high school diplomas. At the same time, the program provides Hopkins a supply of trained personnel to take over important yet hard-to-fill, chronically vacant health care positions.  

“The Johns Hopkins Health System has a longstanding commitment to ‘grow’ our employees, and this program is a wonderful example of our commitment,” says Ron Peterson, president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine. “We want to congratulate our graduates and to assure them that we will be there to support them every step of the way.”

“Giving an employee new skills and education is one of the most powerful things we can do,” says Pamela Paulk, vice president of human resources for the Johns Hopkins Health System and Hospital. “It becomes an asset to each one of them; something that can never be taken away. It increases their earning potential and gives us skilled, dedicated workers. Everybody wins.”

In addition to several Hopkins employees who completed Project REACH, guest speakers at the graduation ceremony include Ron Peterson, Pamela Paulk and City Councilperson Lauretta Brown.

 

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