Foreign-born doctors fill physician shortages in the West

“Grow your own” programs, like Reach University’s, are working to address teacher shortages, particularly in rural areas, by recruiting school employees who don’t have college or education degrees and giving them a chance to earn an undergraduate degree in education at just $75 a month. Participants take courses online and take 15 hours out of their work week to spend time observing and training in classrooms. So far 84% of all parishes across the state have signed up to take Reach trainees, which could put a significant dent in the statewide teacher vacancy issue.

Based on pressure from international aid organizations, the kingdom of Jordan now offers permits for refugees to work in agriculture, construction, hospitality and other industries. As a result, the large Syrian refugee community has better integrated into society and can help support their families. NGOs help refugees with the administrative paperwork and also facilitate access t0 vocational training and the equipment people need to get started in the jobs. In return, aid organizations have invested over $8 million in infrastructure and education projects.

Part 3 of the "Equity or Bust: Are Ontario's Public Schools a Model for Pennsylvania" Series: Ontario is widely lauded for its education system, celebrated for both high performance and relatively smaller achievement gaps between wealthy and poor students. One of the key factors to their success is rigorous preparation of and support for their teachers. Pennsylvania, meanwhile, struggles to find and retain educators.

Sweden has, and continues, to receive a lot of asylum seekers, leading to the need for successful integration of these new immigrants. Certain programs have been developed, such as one that when completed asylum seekers will be able to gain employment faster, or others that help young immigrants understand their new culture.

A group of women are restoring abandoned chinampas (ancient Aztec floating farms) in and around Mexico City, combining indigenous farming techniques with university research partnerships to clean polluted waterways, protect endangered axolotls, revive sustainable year-round agriculture, and train a new generation of farmers in traditional methods.

To quickly build a skilled workforce, two Kansas community colleges and Panasonic created an accelerated 8-week apprenticeship, funded by the company and featuring tailored classroom and practical training. The program aims to fast-track workers into Panasonic's new EV battery factory while providing clear career pathways through stackable credentials.

The Surge Project and EmpowerED Birmingham uplift local youth by providing mentorships, tutoring, healthcare resources, workforce development programs and educational opportunities in various fields. In the program's 2023 pilot partnership with the National Training Institute for Healthcare technicians, 32 of the 40 participants graduated with a phlebotomy or EKG certification, and 19 of them were local high school students.

Now Teach helps retrain older professionals for second careers in teaching, tapping candidates who might otherwise retire early to help fill staffing shortages in the education sector. The program has helped roughly 850 people earn a postgraduate certificate in education, and its trainees are more ethnically diverse than the national pool of teachers overall.

The Heberthausen Asylum Support Group helps incoming migrants and refugees find housing, jobs and learn the German language to integrate with society and work towards citizenship.

The Women Radio Centre (WRC) works to empower the next generation of female investigative journalists, training them on reporting tactics to prevent gender disparities and promote reporting on women’s rights, as women are often underrepresented in investigative journalism. WRC also aims to equip young, female journalists with adequate training and connect them with job, networking and story opportunities. In WRC’s second year, 40 journalists have been trained and completed the program.