MIT Professor Cites Bronx’s CHCA as a Top Job Training Model
Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), a PHI affiliate, is cited as an example of a high-quality job training program in an article published at the American Prospect on September 9.
Written by Paul Osterman, a professor at MIT‘s Sloan School of Management, the article argues that comprehensive job training programs can help lower unemployment in the U.S., despite doubts from critics.
CHCA, for example, “trains home health aides more extensively than is typical for those in these jobs, which in turn leads to higher wages and lower turnover,” Osterman writes.
The largest worker-owned cooperative in the country, the Bronx-based CHCA has provided more than 7,000 low-income, unemployed New Yorkers with opportunities for quality jobs since its founding in 1985.
In 2012, it became one of the first home care agencies to earn a B Corps certification from B Lab. Earlier this year, B Lab named CHCA as a “Best for the World” company.
Along with CHCA, Osterman cites Boston’s Jewish Vocational Services and the Texas Interfaith Education Fund as examples of programs that both train workers in the skills they need and help them find work in their chosen fields.
These programs “work with employers to identify real jobs, and they then make substantial investments in trainees to help them succeed,” Osterman writes.
“The leaders of these effective programs believe that they have two clients — the students and the employers — and they work hard to meet the needs of each,” he adds.
— by Matthew Ozga
