(Photograph Courtesy of LaGuardia Neighborhood Faculty)
March 13, 2025 By Shane O’Brien
LaGuardia Neighborhood Faculty in Lengthy Island Metropolis is providing two tuition-free coaching packages aimed toward equipping New Yorkers with important expertise for careers in healthcare finance and operations and supporting people in search of to finish their Basic Instructional Growth (GED) checks.
One of many packages, GED Categorical, is a free on-line night course designed to assist college students who haven’t handed one or two topics of the GED examination. The GED examination consists of 4 educational topic checks that certify data equal to a highschool diploma. This initiative supplies a possibility for people to finish their GED and transfer ahead with their instructional and profession objectives.
In the meantime, LaGuardia’s Healthcare Finance and Operations Coaching Program just lately celebrated the commencement of 26 New Yorkers from this system, beforehand referred to as Medical Billing Specialist Coaching. LaGuardia stated the brand new identify displays an expanded deal with a broad array of non-clinical healthcare matters, comparable to income cycle and affected person entry coordination, designed to fulfill the wants of employer companions.
The six-month program, which started a decade in the past, is obtainable tuition-free and designed and funded by a partnership with the New York Metropolis Division of Small Enterprise Providers (SBS).
This system started when Harvard Enterprise College Membership of New York’s Abilities Hole Venture related LaGuardia and Weill Cornell Medication to develop a certificates program to organize underserved New Yorkers for specialised entry-level jobs in healthcare.
Sunil B. Gupta, Vice President of the Persevering with Schooling Division at LaGuardia, which oversees the Healthcare Finance and Operations Coaching Program, praised the Harvard Enterprise College Membership of New York for uplifting this system a decade in the past.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Harvard Business School Club of New York for sparking our collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine, which has led to partnerships with Mount Sinai and additional leading health providers in New York,” Gupta stated in a press release.
Photograph: LaGuardia Neighborhood Faculty
Gupta additionally said that the choice to vary this system’s identify mirrored the evolution and growth of this system.
“It’s a positive sign for the evolution of this program that after 10 years, it has been renamed as the Healthcare Finance and Operations Training Program. The new name reflects the many types of job opportunities open to students who complete this program,” Gupta added.
SBS Commissioner Dynishal Gross stated the Healthcare Finance and Operations Coaching Program represents a wonderful instance of public-private partnership.
“The Healthcare Finance and Operations Training Program is a powerful example of partnership and public investment working together to create economic opportunity for New Yorkers while simultaneously meeting the needs of employers in a high-demand industry,” Gross stated in a press release.
This system is particularly out there for low-income New Yorkers with a highschool diploma or equal who’re fascinated with coaching for non-clinical positions with New York Metropolis’s prime hospital techniques. Entry-level graduates can count on beginning salaries starting from $45,000 to $50,000, with alternatives for development.
GED Categorical, however, focuses on the core topics of social research, science, studying, and language arts and supplies a quicker observe to GED completion by focused assist and assets.
Funded by the New York State Schooling Division and Metropolis Tax levy monies, GED Categorical is operated by LaGuardia Grownup Primary Abilities, which serves greater than 1,000 college students making ready for his or her GED exams yearly.
Maritza Pritsos, Senior Director of Grownup Primary Abilities at LaGuardia Neighborhood Faculty, stated GED Categorical represents a major alternative for people to start out school or apply for jobs.
“ED Express represents a significant opportunity for individuals who have stopped out of the GED process to complete their education and achieve their goals, e.g., starting college or applying for jobs that require a GED,” Pritsos stated.
GED Categorical lessons start this month, and college students can enroll anytime, supplied they’ve handed no less than two GED topics prior to now.
All potential college students should take a four-hour, in-person placement examination, whereas the GED examination itself is computer-based and brought in particular person.
GED Categorical lessons are taught on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Courses are taught in English.
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