SOURCE: Nashville Business Journal
AUTHOR: Meg Garner
“HCA Healthcare is proud to support Nashville GRAD as a complementary strategy to our work with the high school academies, and we appreciate Mayor Briley’s leadership on this important issue for our city," CEO Sam Hazen said in a statement.
PHOTO COURTESY OF HCA HEALTHCARE INC
HCA Healthcare Inc. wants to help build Nashville's talent pipeline, and it's paying up to make that happen.
On Thursday, the health care giant announced a $100,000 donation to Nashville Getting Results by Advancing Degrees (GRAD), the city-sponsored program designed to cover the costs of community college not included under the state's Tennessee Promise and Tennessee Reconnect programs. Mayor David Briley unveiled Nashville GRAD in December, with plans to launch it this fall.
“Nashville GRAD is an innovative partnership to improve college graduation rates and the quality of life for thousands of families while enhancing Nashville’s workforce,” HCA CEO Sam Hazen said in a statement. “HCA Healthcare is proud to support Nashville GRAD as a complementary strategy to our work with the high school academies, and we appreciate Mayor Briley’s leadership on this important issue for our city.”
Championed by outgoing Gov. Bill Haslam, Tennessee Promise and Tennessee Reconnect provide free community college tuition to high school students and adults, respectively. Metro's new program, based on one in New York, is designed to go one step further by covering a variety of expenses, from textbooks and supplies to transportation and industry-certification fees, according to the mayor's office.
Building a stronger workforce is a top-of-mind issue for Nashville's business community, particularly as the city prepares to absorb thousands of new jobs in the coming years while navigating record-low unemployment levels. That pressure has prompted some companies to get creative in training and retaining workers. For instance, Amazon.com Inc. is set to invest $800,000 to endow a computer science professor at Tennessee State University, in an effort to start establishing its own pipeline of diverse prospective employees.
The mayor's office has said Briley will commit $1 million to the program in Metro's upcoming budget, with plans to up that amount to $2.5 million in the following year. That funding will require Metro Council approval. The mayor has also hoped to leverage the city's business community to help fund the program. HCA's support marks the program's first major private-sector donation, according to a news release.
Nashville GRAD is open to full-time students at Nashville State Community College and the Tennessee College of Applied Technology Nashville. The mayor's office estimates the program will serve more than 3,000 students annually.