MCC’s Customized Direct Care Training Program Fills Critical Need for Quality Professionals

As the nation’s population ages, the need for long-term care workers is growing. However, the pool of caring qualified workers is not growing to meet this need, creating a well-documented crisis for the care of our aging and disabled citizens. With over 50,000 workers employed in direct care across the state and growth fueled by an aging population, many employers and governmental agencies are looking for ways to improve the capacity to recruit and retain quality staff.

To address this challenge, MCC collaborated with employers and funders and pioneered an employer focused recruitment training program in 2001. Since its inception, more than 300 direct care professionals have been trained.

MCC partnered with a consortium of employers who are members of Pennsylvania Community Providers Association (PCPA), a statewide trade association representing nearly 200 community based agencies that provide mental health/mental retardation, (MH/MR) substance abuse and other human services. MCC’s employer partners provided input about hiring and retention challenges and reviewed and critiqued the recruitment program and training curriculum. The shared goal was to create a recruitment and training program that would meet the needs of the local direct care labor market and low income job seekers while promoting employment retention and better quality care for consumers of MH/MR services.

Since its inception, MCC has trained over 500 direct care professionals. Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation funded the pilot and continues to support student participation in this employer directed customized training program. Because of the program’s success and critical labor market demand, MCC has also been awarded funding from the PA Department of Labor and Industry and Department of Public Welfare.

The program is very unique in that only students who meet the specific hiring requirements of the participating employers are enrolled in training. “MCC’s goal is to minimize the screening process for the human resources departments of our partner employers,” explains Karen Burgess, former Executive Director of MCC. “Our relationships with these employers help us to understand who can succeed on the job. We use our own assessment competencies to narrow the pool of candidates to those individuals who are likely to succeed once employed.”

According to George Kimes, Executive Director of PCPA, “PCPA members and staff have been very impressed with MCC and their ability to partner with our member agencies to recruit and train quality MH/MR direct support professionals. They consistently have demonstrated an impressive commitment to excellence and quality.”

For more information about this training program, please contact MCC at (215) 568-9215. Organizations interested in participating in this training program or developing one similar should contact Linda Hahn, Executive Director, at (215) 568-9215 or email .

To hire an MCC graduate call Employer Services at (215) 568-9215 or e-mail .