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Those with Denver nursing jobs and healthcare jobs throughout Colorado will benefit from a slew of new proposed bills.

Gov. Bill Ritter recently announced new job-training initiatives meant to strengthen Colorado's workforce, support small businesses throughout the state and maintain a competitive stance among the national and global economy.

The initiatives include three bills that will be introduced during the 2010 legislative session, two of which focus around healthcare-related positions, as well as a CareerReady Colorado Certificate program.

The three bills include:

• The Health Care Jobs for Colorado bill will encourage and provide incentives for healthcare professionals who work in rural and under-served communities, in turn ensuring that residents in those areas have access to comprehensive healthcare services. The measure also will improve existing public and private loan repayment programs and increase the state's primary care workforce.
• The Nurse Training Loan Forgiveness bill will improve the existing CollegeInvest program by extending current eligibility requirements. The measure will increase the number of nurse faculty and the number of new nurses who can be trained each year.
• The Job Retraining Accounts bill introduces accounts that will be used to finance employee education and training. The employer-matched, portable, employee-owned accounts will encourage partnership between workers and employers to increase education productivity and improve recruitment and retention.

The CareerReady Colorado Certificate program, which was piloted earlier this year, will now be available throughout the state. It will provide job seekers with a state-issued credential certifying their skills and abilities, which also will make it easier for employers to find qualified candidates.

"Over the past three years, we've launched some of the most aggressive business- and workforce-development strategies in the country," Ritter said. "While Colorado residents and companies continue to struggle, our strategies are working and our economy is beginning to stabilize.

"We still have a long way to go, and government alone cannot fix the economy," he added. "But we can do our part. We can strengthen partnerships between government, schools and businesses. And we can ensure that job-training efforts match job-creation efforts. That's exactly what we're doing today, and the end result will be good Colorado jobs for hard-working Coloradans and a stronger homegrown workforce for our businesses."

Labels: Denver nursing jobs