Trilogy Plans to Hire 1,000 High Schoolers in 5 Years Through New Program

Trilogy Health Services launched a new initiative in its ongoing efforts to recruit and retain new senior housing workers, through a work-study program in Kentucky high schools.

The Louisville-based senior housing and care provider announced it will invest $10 million in high schools across the Bluegrass State for students interested in pursuing careers in health care, the company said in a press release issued Friday.

The effort comes as part of a broader push from Trilogy to offer substantial education-related benefits for its employees. Like providers across the country, Trilogy is contending with a severe labor crunch. Reaching out to high school and college students is one way that industry leaders have proposed could help address these challenges.

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Students who participate in the Trilogy Scholar Program will undergo a 96-hour pre-apprenticeship program before joining the staff at a Trilogy community, receive regular on-the-job training and professional certification opportunities, have the ability to earn college credit, and become eligible for college scholarships and free tuition opportunities.

Through the program, Trilogy expects to hire as many as 200 high school students annually over the next five years, for front line positions including guest relations associates, dietary and nurse aides, maintenance associates, life enrichment and environmental services. Half of the $10 million Trilogy has pledged will be spent in Jefferson County, Kentucky schools. Louisville is the largest city in the county.

“It’s our goal to create the future leaders of the health care industry, and the first step to doing that is investing in the youth in our communities,” Trilogy Senior Vice President of Foundation and Workforce Development Todd Schmiedeler said in the announcement. “We want to empower these students to enter the health care field earlier. That way they can begin making a positive impact in the lives of others while setting themselves up for success in the future. Our investment is our way of saying to these students, ‘We believe in you. You can make a difference.’”

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Trilogy, which employs nearly 12,000 people, has been proactive in employee recruitment and retention in recent years, investing millions to establish loan repayment assistance programs and education-related benefits for its workforce.

Last June, the provider announced a partnership with Purdue Global University to fully fund online college for its associates. The loan repayment program has shelled out close to $2 million annually to about 1,500 associates. It also awarded 2,500 scholarships in 2018 and has about 5,000 employees in a registered apprenticeship program.

The multi-pronged initiatives have boosted Trilogy’s workforce retention numbers. Participants in the loan repayment program had an average tenure of 3.4 years, versus 1.28 years for employees who are not receiving loan assistance, Schmiedeler told SHN last November.

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