In West Dallas, a small cohort of working-age adults is about to get a shot at hospital and clinic careers, no tuition required. Goodwill Industries of Dallas and Workforce Dallas are teaming up on a 20-week Certified Clinical Medical Assistant training program that aims to move adults into full-time roles across local health systems.
The free, hybrid course blends weekly online units with in-person clinical labs and an externship, and organizers say it will prepare graduates to sit for the national CCMA exam. The program prioritizes applicants 25 and older but is open to anyone 18 and up, with the first class expected to include roughly 12 to 15 participants. Training kicks off Feb. 23 at Goodwill’s Westmoreland Road campus in West Dallas.
As reported by The Dallas Morning News, organizers sent a flyer to a database of around 3,500 jobseekers and say more than 600 people have already reached out, an early sign that interest is not in short supply. The News notes that Lynn McBee, the city’s workforce director, was asked by Mayor Eric Johnson to zero in on a “forgotten workforce” of older adults who have been bypassed by traditional career pipelines. Program leaders told the paper they plan to screen applicants carefully so the training is a good fit for both participants and employers.
How the training works
Per Workforce Dallas, the CCMA course starts Feb. 23 and runs for 20 weeks in a hybrid format that combines weekly online coursework with in-person clinical labs every other Thursday from 8 a.m. to noon at Goodwill’s facility at 3020 N Westmoreland Road. Students are expected to complete one unit each week, which organizers say translates to about 12 to 15 clock hours…