Long-Term Care Workforce

4.3. Progression of Apprentices through the

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 4.3. Progression of Apprentices through the Program

Senior staff, including supervisors, more experienced long-term care workers, nurses, and trainers play a role in monitoring and testing apprentices in all five sites, as discussed on Table 4 . Shadowing, or following and observing, more senior staff as they perform tasks during early training sessions occurs at both Developmental Services and Ho

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 4.2. Program Models

Four of the five sites visited (Developmental Services, Good Samaritan, Air Force Villages, and Agape) are considered a hybrid registered apprenticeship model of competency-based and time-based requirements for completion of their LTC RAPs. This means that completion of the apprenticeship requirements is tracked by successfully demonstrati

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 4.1. Program Goals

As shown in Table 4 , the primary goal for each of the LTC RAPs visited is to improve the skills of its long-term care workforce. Apprenticeship is recognized by the sites as a model that reinforces technical skills and fosters the interpersonal skills that are essential to the industry.Air Force Villages staff considered attentiveness and person

4. FEATURES OF THE REGISTERED APPRENTICESHIP

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 4. Features of the Registered Apprenticeship Programs

The five sites visited varied in their goals, program duration, completion milestones, type of instruction, and wage progression. The following section provides a detailed summary of these program features. While each of the five LTC RAPs shares the goal of improving the skills of their workforce, their program models vary in important ways. Some

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 3.5. Program Completion

Nationally, about half of long-term care apprentices in LTC RAPs since 2005 have either completed or are still participating in their program. At the two largest sites, the share of active apprentices or those who have completed of all enrollees (43% of all Developmental Services apprentices and 46% of all Good Samaritan apprentices) was less than

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 3.4. Characteristics of Apprentices

A large majority of the registered apprentices in all five sites who have enrolled since 2005 is women. Eighty-three percent of apprentices are women at Developmental Services, 92% at Home Care Associates, and 100% at Good Samaritan, Air Force Villages, and Agape ( Table 3 ). This distribution reflects the gender composition of the long-term care

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 3.3. Recruitment Challenges

Recruiting qualified apprentices can be challenging for all sites ( Table 2 ). Human resources staff members at Developmental Services noted that while they can consistently hire 25-30 apprentices a month, they never turn away qualified applicants and always have vacancies to fill. Most sites mentioned that the greatest challenge is finding appren

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 3.2. Participation Incentives

All sites provide a wage progression as a participation incentive for their LTC RAP ( Table 2 ). At Developmental Services, wages for new job entrants begin at $7.25 per hour, and increase by at least $1.25 per hour after the initial apprenticeship training is completed. Developmental Services does not offer a wage increase with the completion of

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 3.1. Recruitment Sources

As shown in Table 2 , all sites advertise for new hires through typical job resources such as newspapers and the Internet, and at job fairs. Staff at Developmental Services, Home Care Associates, and Good Samaritan noted that the apprenticeship is a major attraction for job applicants. Apprentices at Home Care Associates suggested that word-of-mo

3. PROGRAM RECRUITMENT, PARTICIPATION, AND

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 3. Program Recruitment, Participation, and Completion

Recruitment of apprentices is a key part of the LTC RAPs visited. Some sites recruit apprentices from the local labor market through traditional hiring methods such as newspaper advertisements and job fairs whereas others select apprentices from employees within the organization. The characteristics of apprentices also vary across the sites visite

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 2.4. Registered Apprenticeship Program Characteristics

The different characteristics of the sites influence the design and operation of each of the LTC RAPs. In particular, the sites experience with training prior to creating the LTC RAP, interest in developing career ladders or better quality jobs, the size of the program, and the length of time and experience with the registered apprenticeship mod

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 2.3. Core Competency Training

All five LTC RAPs provide training in specific core competencies to mark progress and completion of the apprenticeship. The core competency trainings developed for the LTC RAPs are designed to ensure that apprentices learn the skills needed to provide high-quality, long-term care, combining the necessary knowledge and experience in personal care a

2.2. Apprenticeship Sponsor Characteristics and

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 2.2. Apprenticeship Sponsor Characteristics and Work Settings

The five sites visited differ along the site selection criteria discussed -- program size, geographic region, occupational focus, and apprenticeship model ( Table 1 ). Four of the sites are private, not-for-profit providers (Developmental Services, Good Samaritan, Home Care Associates, and Air Force Villages), while Agape is a for-profit provider.

2.1. Summaries of Selected Long-Term Care

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 2.1. Summaries of Selected Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Program Sites

To provide an understanding of the LTC RAPs selected for study, a short description of each program is provided. More detailed descriptions of the LTC RAPs are provided in Appendix B of this report. Developmental Services, Inc.

2. LONG-TERM CARE REGISTERED APPRENTICESHIP

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 2. Long-term CARE Registered Apprenticeship Program Sites

The interviews conducted with program staff, apprentices, and partners during the site visits to five LTC RAPs -- Developmental Services, Inc. (Indiana), the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society (Idaho), Home Care Associates (Pennsylvania), Air Force Villages, Inc. (Texas), and Agape Senior (South Carolina) -- offered an in-depth understand

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 1.3. Methodology

The site selection process used four criteria to identify a dozen potential sites to visit. To best inform the most rigorous potential evaluation design options, the size of the program served as the primary site selection criterion, with the sites having the largest numbers of apprentices entering programs making the initial selection list. To ob

1.2. Evaluating Long-Term Care Registered

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 1.2. Evaluating Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship

To assess whether the registered apprenticeship model is an effective approach for training long-term care workers, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the DOL have funded a study to better understand LTC RAP characteristics to inform possible design options for future evaluations of LTC RAPs. To develop evaluations, HHS and

1.1. The Long-Term Care Industry and Registered

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 1.1. The Long-Term Care Industry and Registered Apprenticeship

Improving the skills of the long-term care workforce is often proposed as a strategy to improve the quality of care in long-term care settings (Institute of Medicine, 2008). Long-term care workers include certified nursing assistants (CNAs) in nursing homes, home health aides (HHAs) working for home health agencies, health support specialists (HSS

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. 1. Introduction

The United States lacks a formal training system for long-term care occupations with and few government standards that regulate the qualifications of long-term care workers. However, there is an unprecedented need for skilled long-term care workers with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the growing health care

Characteristics of Long-Term Care Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Implications for Evaluation Design. Executive Summary

Improving the skills of the workforce is often proposed as a strategy for improving the quality of care in long-term care settings (Institute of Medicine, 2008). The long-term care system currently lacks a formal training and career development system that is applicable across different states and long-term care settings. A federal standard requir

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