{"id":354295,"date":"2026-06-29T12:04:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T12:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/354295\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T12:04:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T12:04:39","slug":"dallas-program-connects-healthcare-trainees-to-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/354295\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas program connects healthcare trainees to jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nancy Sosa introduced herself to recruiters and healthcare officials while classmates rotated among employers from Parkland Health, Texas Health\u00a0Resources\u00a0and other organizations\u00a0at\u00a0Goodwill Industries\u00a0of\u00a0Dallas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sosa, a 39-year-old former executive chef and chocolatier, is one of 15 students in Goodwill Dallas’ new certified clinical medical assistant program<\/a>. Though she spent years working in kitchens, Sosa said she had long wanted to work in healthcare and was drawn to the field by a lifelong fascination with the human body and a desire to help others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On that recent afternoon, the cohort received its first face-to-face opportunity with potential\u00a0employers\u00a0weeks before graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love everything,\u201d Sosa\u00a0said of\u00a0the program. \u201cI always have time\u00a0for studying. I always have time to review my modules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodwill Dallas, Workforce Dallas, TWU\u00a0Ventures\u00a0and training provider\u00a0Skilltrade\u00a0are piloting a workforce model that brings employers into the process before students complete the 20-week program.<\/p>\n

Jason Aubrey, founder and chief executive of\u00a0Skilltrade, said too many workforce programs stop at certification,\u00a0leaving\u00a0graduates to navigate the job search on their own rather than connecting them directly to employers,\u00a0externships\u00a0and interviews.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a number of programs or training providers that, I use the term, \u2018train and pray,\u2019\u201d Aubrey said.\u00a0\u201cJust train someone, offer career services, help them update their resume, and show them a list of employers that are hiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nConnecting employers with potential workers\n<\/p>\n

Instead, Aubrey said, the goal is direct employer engagement before graduation through externships,\u00a0interviews\u00a0and conversations with hiring managers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that handoff, or lack thereof, is a missed opportunity to yield better outcomes,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

Evelyn Salazar<\/a>, another student\u00a0in Goodwill\u2019s new workforce training program, said she previously\u00a0completed a certified medical assistant program more than a decade ago.\u00a0The\u00a0earlier training gave her technical skills\u00a0but little support once classes ended.<\/p>\n

“I felt like I was on my own towards\u00a0the end,” Salazar said.\u00a0The\u00a0previous\u00a0program lacked the\u00a0employer mixers, tutoring\u00a0options\u00a0or structured job-placement efforts comparable to those built into the Goodwill program.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Henry<\/a>, a workforce-training graduate from\u00a0United\u00a0Way\u2019s Pathways to Work\u00a0initiative, described a similar challenge. While praising\u00a0the\u00a0programs that helped her transition into phlebotomy, she said\u00a0many\u00a0other\u00a0training\u00a0efforts fail\u00a0to\u00a0bridge the gap between graduation and employment.<\/p>\n

“The goal is to get people in gainful employment,” Henry said. “If you don’t get a job afterwards, your work is kind of in vain.”<\/p>\n

The organizers\u00a0of Goodwill\u2019s\u00a0initiative\u00a0said success will\u00a0ultimately be\u00a0measured by how many students complete the program and move into jobs,\u00a0externships or interviews, with the long-term goal of building a reliable talent pipeline for healthcare employers.<\/p>\n

\nGrowing need for healthcare workers\n<\/p>\n

The approach comes as hospitals and clinics across North Texas continue struggling to fill frontline support roles such as medical assistants and patient care technicians.<\/p>\n

At the mixer, recruiters spoke with students about schedules,\u00a0previous\u00a0work\u00a0experience\u00a0and externship opportunities while organizers emphasized that employers were there to evaluate real hiring prospects.<\/p>\n

Texas Health officials said the Goodwill program uses curriculum aligned with the health system\u2019s own workforce training programs, helping employers better understand graduates\u2019 skill levels. Parkland Health<\/a> officials similarly said hiring leaders and recruiters actively\u00a0participate\u00a0in mixers like this to\u00a0identify\u00a0potential candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a check-the-box exercise,\u201d said Lynn McBee, the city\u2019s workforce\u00a0czar\u00a0who leads Workforce Dallas. \u201cWe are looking for talent because we need it, and we want to be that supplier of a really good workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019\u00a0healthcare workforce shortages<\/a>\u00a0stem from multiple factors, including an aging population, pandemic-related worker losses and population growth that has outpaced workforce development, advocates say.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But shortages are often tied as much to workplace adjustment as to certification itself, said Ivan Esquivel, clinic director at Brother Bill\u2019s Helping Hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to train what it looks like to work in a very professional setting,\u201d Esquivel said. Skills such as receiving constructive criticism, time management, and understanding priorities tend to come with experience, he said.<\/p>\n

Esquivel, whose West Dallas nonprofit clinic primarily serves Hispanic families managing chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension, said many workers also struggle with transportation and childcare instability.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they don\u2019t have a car, it\u2019s almost like not having a cell phone,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t go to work, you can\u2019t pick up your kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Esquivel said programs like the Goodwill pathway create opportunities many adults never thought they would have.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrograms like the Goodwill program give them a second chance,\u201d he said. \u201cThey provide hope to a lot of these people that\u00a0maybe thought, \u2018I\u2019m just going to be in the hood my whole life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sosa understands that feeling. Though she spent years working in kitchens and specializing in chocolate work, she said she always wanted to move into healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I was a kid, I was very interested in the human body, how it works,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She found the program through a flyer online and\u00a0immediately\u00a0applied.<\/p>\n

Now she studies constantly, sometimes waking in the middle of the night thinking about healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other day, at 2:30 in the morning, I\u2019m reading about drawing blood,\u201d Sosa said.<\/p>\n

The mixer made the pathway feel more tangible, Sosa said, but she also wants more hands-on clinical training before graduation. That tension sits at the center of the experiment unfolding inside the Goodwill classroom.<\/p>\n

Organizers are trying to build a workforce model that does more than hand\u00a0people\u00a0certificates. Employers are being brought into the process earlier, students are being connected to externships sooner, and training providers are trying to adapt curriculum around real hiring needs.<\/p>\n

Goodwill Dallas and its partners are already preparing to\u00a0scale\u00a0the effort.\u00a0A\u00a0second certified clinical medical assistant cohort is\u00a0expected to begin in July.<\/p>\n

Sosa said the chance to sit across from employers before graduation already feels different from\u00a0previous\u00a0workforce experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so ready to continue with the program,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s addicting.\u201d<\/p>\n

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nancy Sosa introduced herself to recruiters and healthcare officials while classmates rotated among employers from Parkland Health, Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[732,910,96674,102,104,103,88032,93339,97647,89146,89147],"class_list":["post-354295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-article","tag-business","tag-business-jobs","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-dallas-fortworth","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas-healthcare","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas-workforce","tag-tp-workforce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}