A West Michigan program is helping neighbors immigrating to the U.S. learn English and reconnect with their medical careers they built in their home countries — while also addressing a critical shortage of medical workers across the state.
The Literacy Center of West Michigan’s My Impact program offers language classes, proficiency building, and career certification training to skilled healthcare workers who have come to the United States from other countries.
“We have amazing, skilled healthcare professionals from their home country here who want to work in these positions, and we were able to help connect them to these positions through language classes, proficiency building, and then also career certification training,” said Melissa Reddy, Program coordinator for the Literacy Center of West Michigan.
The program has helped more than 100 people since it launched in 2024. The need is significant: according to the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, there are 23,000 open positions at Michigan hospitals alone…