Senior living companies are partnering with education organizations to help employees, students and even residents further their education. Here are three recent examples of the trend.
Discovery Senior Living partners with college
Discovery Senior Living in Tampa, FL, recently welcomed 16 Endicott College students from Beverly, MA, to learn about the inner workings of today’s senior living communities and explore burgeoning career opportunities.
The partnership was developed to show students real-world corporate experiences, as well as break down stereotypes that portray senior living communities as end-of-life destinations, according to Discovery Senior Living CEO Richard Hutchinson.
Discovery opened up two of its communities – Aston Gardens at Tampa Bay and Discovery Village at Tampa Palms – for the students to meet with community and corporate leadership, hear industry and career presentations and explore different business segments such as culinary operations, sales management and entertainment and event planning.
One student said that the experience “changed the way I thought about senior living, opened my eyes to an inspiring industry [and] made me recognize the job opportunities available,” according to Discovery.
In addition, the company made a multi-year scholarship commitment, whereby $10,000 in financial aid will be given to Endicott College’s Corporate Scholars Program in each of the next five years. The need-based funding is intended to benefit deserving students majoring in nursing and hospitality.
Four Endicott students per year also will be named Discovery Senior Living Scholars in each of the next five years. Scholarship winners will earn internship and one-on-one mentoring opportunities, which can help them gain an edge in the job market following graduation.
LifeSpire of Virginia launches its first educational partnership
LifeSpire of Virginia has teamed up with Averett University to begin a three-pronged partnership. In it, employees of Lifespire can earn scholarships from Averett to get their degrees, LifeSpire residents will be able to attend college-level lectures in their homes and Averett students will get the chance to intern at LifeSpire.
LifeSpire employees automatically qualify for Averett scholarships once they meet admissions criteria. For each undergraduate course taken, Averett will award a $250 scholarship and a $350 scholarship for each graduate course taken.
The college course program that will be offered for residents will begin at the LifeSpire community in Lakewood, VA, in the fall and eventually will expand to include the organization’s other communities in Culpeper, Daleville and Newport News, VA. Residents can choose to take classes in religion, communications and criminal justice/sociology.
Averett students will have the opportunity to have an internship at LifeSpire in the areas of business, communications and accounting. Nursing students will be able to complete clinical hours with this partnership, according to Ann Lovell, corporate director of communications, LifeSpire.
“We are excited to partner with Averett to offer these opportunities,” LifeSpire of Virginia President and CEO Jonathan Cook said. “Averett prepares its students to make a difference in the world. LifeSpire helps team members achieve their full potential and believes that providing educational opportunities is a key piece of that process.”
Trilogy Health Services offers employees higher education through partnership
Trilogy Health Services, a senior care provider in the Midwest, has partnered with Purdue University Global to provide a fully-funded-education employee benefits program.
Trilogy employees will be able to pursue any degree they choose, including related fields of nursing, health sciences and business, at no cost to them. In addition to Trilogy’s tuition support, students of Purdue Global will be able to accelerate their progress toward a degree by receiving credit for prior learning, training and work / life experiences.
“We are excited to offer this great new benefit to take the knowledge and skills of our workforce to a new level,” said Todd Schmiedeler, senior vice president of foundation and workforce development at Trilogy Health Services. “This underscores our high level of commitment to our employees’ education and career growth. We believe this will help us to continue to attract and retain the most highly skilled employees to serve our clients.”
According to Schmiedeler, Trilogy decided to partner with Purdue Global because of its ability to help working adults acquire and apply knowledge, skills and abilities while earning their degrees conveniently, affordably and quickly.
