A Riverland program that trains Spanish-speaking residents for nursing jobs has received a federal grant to help keep it going.

The American Association of Community Colleges and U.S. Department of Labor granted a $10,000 workforce development award to Riverland Community College for the college’s bilingual nursing assistant program, which tries to address the need for certified nursing assistants (CNAs) in rural facilities while serving a growing Hispanic community.

Riverland’s partnership with three long-term care providers in Albert Lea &045; Thorne Crest, St. John’s, and Good Samaritan Center &045; along with Workforce Development, Inc., Albert Lea School District Adult Basic Education, and the State of Minnesota, provided English language training and nursing assistant training and certification to marginally employable non-English speakers, most of whom are dislocated workers from Farmland Foods.

&uot;By providing bilingual instruction, the program greatly reduced the number of Spanish speakers who failed to pass the certification exam,&uot; said Sue Howard, Riverland Community College academic dean. &uot;The curriculum incorporates an accelerated computer and English-language-skills module to ensure a basic level of workplace competency.&uot;

Enrollment numbers are small but significant in a rural setting and thus far all enrolled students have completed the course requirements and passed the certification exam. All became employed as CNAs after graduation and all but two are still employed as CNAs.

&uot;As a result of the bilingual certified nursing assistant program, by the end of the 2002-2003 academic year, 45 to 50 new nursing assistants will be employed in the health care field,&uot; Howard said.