Medical Center Hospital, education and workforce partners held a signing ceremony Thursday for two 2024 Ector County ISD graduates and one 2024 Monahans-Wickett-Pyote ISD graduate who have completed their Texas Certified Nursing Assistant certifications and are now being hired on full-time by MCH.
The signing was held in the Admitting Lobby at Medical Center and was attended by phlebotomist Daisy Torres and her family. The other signees, Maria Garcia, who is working at the Family Healthcare Clinic as a medical assistant, Ricardo Santiago, a cath lab aide at MCH, and Lauren Forbusch, a Monahans-Wickett-Pyote graduate working on 7 Central as an LVN, were unable to be there.
Representatives from ECISD, Medical Center, Odessa College, Texas Workforce Development Board, StarTech Group and ACCESS and Monahans-Wickett-Pyote ISD were on hand.
ECISD Executive Director of Career and Technical Education Ryan Merritt said this is the third year for the Career Placement Initiative. The concept was to make sure they connected students to employers that had jobs and opportunities within the career field that the students studied while they were in high school.
“The idea, again, was to ensure that we’re just not letting them go find their way after high school, but really connecting them with career opportunities to give them a head start on finding their way,” he added.
The program has continued to grow over the last three years. Merritt said about 60 students have been placed.
“We’re continuing to work with our industry partners and work with our classroom teachers, so that we’re connecting students that have the knowledge and skills with the companies that are looking to benefit from those skills,” Merritt said.
At the beginning of the school year, he said, employers are invited to come to speak to senior-level students about opportunities they have available.
“The first step is they learn from the employers what opportunities are out there. We had a day for MCH to come out and speak with our students about all the different entry points that they have into jobs here with MCH. From there, we find out what students are interested in interviewing with those employers. They sign up on a Google form and let us know that, hey, I’m interested in interviewing. Then the Career Placement Initiative connects the employer with the students (and) sets up those interviews,” Merritt said.
“In many cases, the employers come back to the school and interview students during their normal class period when they would be taking their health science class, for example. From there, it’s about lowering barriers; bringing the employers to them so that they don’t have to take multiple steps to go through that process. After the interviews happen, we work with both the employer and the students to connect them to see if there’s a good connection where there’s going to be a job offer,” he added.
Merritt said they are looking at students who have completed a program of study.
“That means that they’ve gone through three different courses together — sophomore, junior and senior year — within that career field, so that they have the skills that we think” will prepare them for an interview, he said.
“So there’s no grade requirement, but the students are being interviewed based upon the credentials that they’ve achieved during high school and the knowledge they have that’s demonstrated through the interviewing process,” Merritt said.
He said other districts in the region are working with the Workforce Development Board and ACCESS on similar initiatives. The Career Placement Initiative is with ECISD.
Merritt said this is about placing students in a career field.
“They are encouraged to continue on at Odessa College while they’re working in their career field. After they graduate from high school, the idea is that we’re preparing our local workforce here. We want to grow our own. We’re hopeful that one, the students consider the opportunities here in the Permian Basin, and so that’s where we bring employers in from the Permian Basin to interview the students. They could choose to go off to wherever they wanted to work or to go to school, but this initiative is really focused on local workforce development,” Merritt said.
Scott Burkett, CTE director at Monahans-Wickett-Pyote ISD, said they recently held a signing in Monahans and he’s excited to see more of them.
“The need for a trained and skilled workforce has never been higher,” Burkett said. “I know just in the years that I’ve been in the business, a lot of our students coming out of high school aren’t prepared. I see a perfect fit for career and technical education to slip right in there and fill the bill,” Burkett added.
Torres said she chose Medical Center because she felt the hospital was a good place to get her started in the medical field. She is working toward a bachelor’s of nursing degree and attending Odessa College. She wants to move on to Texas Tech. She would like to become a labor and delivery nurse.
“I feel like MCH just welcomes you as a whole. I’ve only been on the job three days now, and I already feel part of a family. They welcomed me. They showed me what it’s like to have people behind me, to work with great people,” Torres said.
She added that everybody gets along and things flow perfectly.
The 2024 Odessa High School graduate added that she has a strong village behind her, especially her parents.
“I’m super grateful that they all support what I do and what I want to become. I know, regardless of what happens in my future, they’ll always have my back,” Torres said.
She added that it feels “so good” to have a career path in front of her, despite the hours spent studying.
