Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Importance of Environmental Training


You have a lot of options on how you can get the environmental training that you require. You have to take the time to check out all of the different training programs available and you can easily become overwhelmed with all of the options. It will be much easier for you to get the right training, no matter what you need, if you take a step back and look through the programs and see which one best suit your needs. You can consider online courses, which is one of the fastest growing trends in professional career training, if you are looking for a faster and more flexible way to learn.

These classes online are not only effective, but they provide people with the education and resources that they need in so many ways. One factor is that online classes are more affordable. You wouldn’t have to pay extra for the venue or location of the training compared to traditional training programs wherein you have to pay a lot of extra such as use of conference room or computer room. If the employers pay for training, the money savings is even more beneficial because it helps the company out. Also, online classes are accessible. That means that you can take them whenever you want, from wherever you are, and do it on your own time and schedule.

It is a big deal to be able to take environmental training programs that you need without having to change your lifestyle or your schedules. Online programs are very helpful to professional and busy people but there is still so much more to enjoy with these classes. Learners can train at their own pace in most cases as most of the programs are self study courses. People can get the education that they need even if they are a fast or slow learner without compromising or missing any lesson as they can go on their own pace.


There are a lot more advantages and reasons why you should consider online training courses for environmental training and even for other professional continuing education requirements. As long as you aren’t trying to learn practical applications in a non-practical environment, you can get a top-rate education by taking online courses when you need them. There are some instances where people will benefit from the traditional classroom setting, but most people can find a variety of advantages to online classes that they can enjoy. Your reasons for choosing online courses are yours alone, but these are some top things to consider.

You can begin looking at your options by visiting www.EPAcampus.com and get more details about their environmental training programs.

Green Building Training Online


Green Building training programs are becoming very popular as a lot of people are focusing on eco-friendly living and helping our environment. This is one of the trainings that people take as they want to build a home or other structures, properly.  Understanding the proper use and application of each different method or products is very critical to the success of building with green materials and methods. By getting proper training, it will be much easier to find work and do the jobs right because you know exactly what you’re doing and how to do it.

The green building training will teach people about sustainable materials, alternative energy sources and methods of green building to make structures more environmentally friendly less damaging to the living things around them. You can learn about green training programs through different products and many and it is very important that you understand it completely so you can offer the best variety of options for your clients when it comes to building their structures. Green building is becoming more and more popular with each passing day, and people with proper training aren’t going to have trouble finding work to keep them busy.

You will be able to pick and choose the exact type of classes you want to take, how long you want to finish it and when you want to take it with online green building training classes. You still have the option to attend hands-on training programs for it too but what matters is that you find a program that will work best for you. Sometimes, it is most beneficial to take courses either online or in a classroom and then supplement those with on-the-job training or another type of applied experience.

It wouldn’t matter how you get trained as long as you learn about the materials and the proper methods in your green building training. Being able to offer a eco-friendly structure is making a lot of people and company popular in the market, you can be that competitive too with the right training. Check if your state or locality has green building compliance guidelines to follow, and then get the right training you would need to provide green building solutions for your client. You can start now by visiting www.EPAcampus.com – your source of Green Building Exam Prep and Education.

Learning Environmental Training Online or Onsite


Programs for environmental training courses are not the same. Different professionals also have different opinions on what they desire and expect from the class and what kind of programs are best for their needs. It has been a long debate on whether online training or traditional classes are the best way to go with online training programs. You should take time to make sure that you check both options to make sure that you get the best program that would best suit your needs and your lifestyle.

There are a lot of different reasons on how online classes and traditional training programs work. The following are some of the things that might help you in your decision for your environmental training course.

  • There is convenience and flexibility with online training programs. You can learn without all of the hassles and distractions that are in traditional classrooms and you can learn on your own time and at your own pace.  It will allow you to make the most out of your training without compromising your schedule.
  • Traditional training programs are more expensive and they can cost you time and resources. It will require you to set a specific date and time for the training, will get you burn gas money for the transportation and it will let you miss some of the events happening in your life (like work in most cases) because they are scheduled.  People who are looking to get to work in their environmental careers or who are simply getting a few CE credits need to get the training that they need so that they can move on, no matter which types of environmental careers they have chosen.
  • Online environmental training programs allow people to get the training and education that they need at the comfort of their home. No need to attend a scheduled class, no need to take off from work to get the training and no need to spend too much money on education and getting it. People can get the training they need when they need it or when they want it and be done with it easily.

Those are just some of the important differences between online environmental training and traditional training programs. It’s easy to check your options with either of the two methods as you can easily use the Internet to check their availability but make sure that you do take your time in weighing in all your options. Taking either of these options will still be the best for your career growth but choosing carefully can give you the best training experience. Take the time to weigh your options and figure out which career training path is best for you and your environmental career. As long as you find the solution that suits your needs, nothing else really matters in the end.

You might want to visit EPAcampus.com for starters to get more details about online environmental training programs.

Training Wastewater Treatment Online


On site or on the job training is one of the best ways to get your wastewater treatment training for the success of your career. This has been the usual practice of professionals in the water treatment facilities to help them make advancement moves in their career. Professionals need to make sure that they do whatever it takes to learn the ropes even if it means getting their hands dirty because this is a very hands-on career that requires an extensive technical knowledge of the industry. However, when it comes to professional career training, there are other options that can speed up the training process and help you get the education that you need.

Online wastewater training programs has been offered for some time now and they have proven to be quite successful in most cases. There are elements in the wastewater treatment certification that don’t require a hands-on approach such as codes, regulations, guidelines, operational procedures and other things that needs to be learned through mental capacity. Being able to operate and run equipment in the field is one thing, understanding the codes and rules behind the principles of the operation is another – and here is where online training can be beneficial.

Some wastewater training may take years to complete due to how the programs are laid out in traditional training programs. You can take time to check out the available online courses that can teach you what you need to know about the rules and knowledge needed for the field; they can find out that they can shorten the length of their job training. At some cases, the training period is cut in half. Finding the right classes isn’t difficult, either, because any qualified training program will give you a list of specific courses required for your career and by your state law or regulating authority.

You can count on online training programs for wastewater treatment certification to give you the education you need to keep your career moving forward without having to spend too much time learning about it. Just make sure that you check out all of the available programs and determine which of those will be needed for your training because not all online classes are the same. You would need to find the best ones available to get that success you want for your career. One place to start your research is EPAcampus.com – provider of environmental training programs and wastewater treatment training.

Monday, July 16, 2012

OSHA seeks nominations for members to serve on Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announced that it is now accepting nominations for six new members to serve on the 16-member Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (FACOSH), which advises the Secretary of Labor on issues concerning the occupational safety and health of federal employees. 

FACOSH also extends help to the Secretary and OSHA with their programs and initiatives to minimize the number and seriousness of injuries and illnesses in the federal workforce, as well as encourages each federal executive branch department and agency to carry out effective occupational safety and health programs.

Although OSHA training—for instance, OSHAcampus.com 10 hour training and OSHAcampus.com 30 hour—is now a pre-employment requirement by many employers, many workers continue to be unnecessarily exposed to avoidable worksite hazards because of employer ignorance, negligence, or plain disregard of basic health and safety standards.

The nominations, according to OSHA, are limited to three labor organization representatives and three federal agency management representatives. Each member will have a term of no more than three years.

OSHA stated that nominations may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov, or by mail or fax. All nominations must be submitted by September 4, 2012.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 mandates that employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their workers. OSHA ensures that these conditions are met by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance to organizations, employers, and employees.

OSHA Slates Training Event for Federal Worker Safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is keeping the federal agency staff responsible for keeping federal workers healthy and safe on its toes. The OSHA Training Institute (OTI) and OSHA's Office of Federal Agency Programs have slated a series of training seminars this July that would put safety programs of federal workplaces on a par with those of the private sector.

Fifty-three federal worker deaths in fiscal 2010 and 30,000 federal workers' compensation claims backdrop the event, lending not just relevance to the seminars but also some urgency. The training event is designed to give federal managers a leg up in putting in place and managing their injury-and-illness-prevention programs.
OSHA training, such as OSHAcampus.com 10 hour training and OSHACampus.com 30 training, is now required by many employers as a requisite for employment, but many workers are still exposed to worksite hazards because of employer negligence, ignorance, or plain disregard of basic safety protocols.

The three-day event—to be held from July 31 to August 2, 2012 at the OSHA Training Institute, 2020 South Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights, IL.—comprises daily seminars on  hazard communication, ergonomics issues, indoor air quality, and workplace violence, among other topics.
According to OSHA, government-agency personnel who will attend the training courses are exempt from tuition and other fees. Federal government contractors and private sector attendees, however, are required to pay tuition.

Registration for the event is open until July 24, 2012. Students can access registration forms, course descriptions and other details at www.osha.gov/dep/fap/fedweek_fy12.html.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Underground Storage Tank Operator Training

Learn more about the very first underground storage tank training from 360Training.com – discover how you can complete all of your UST operator training requirements for your underground storage tank facility.

Three organizations have come together to deliver TPCA Class A and Class B UST Facility Operator Training Course, the pioneering online course on underground storage tanks: the Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association (TPCA), the TAIT Environmental, and 360training.com, the last a leading e-learning hub. 

It took three to make it happen because of the training’s critical mission: To reduce the danger of accidental releases of toxic petroleum products from the state’s many underground storage tanks (USTs), which likely would poison not just the environment but also the groundwater from which Texas gets much of its water.

That danger is clear and ever-present: about 590,000 aging USTs, almost all of them owned and operated by gas stations, scattered all over the U.S. are in danger of leaking their contents if they are not properly maintained now or they continue to be incorrectly operated. By providing the training, 360training.com and its coursework collaborators hope to contain the danger and eliminate it in time.

To address the different aspects of safe UST operation and maintenance, the course was designed to cover ten important topics: release detection, initial release response, abatement, and NAPL removal, spill/overfill protection, corrosion protection, installation and technical standards for USTs, investigation and confirmation steps, TCEQ corrective action, waste management, and soil and groundwater cleanup, and financial assurance. 

360training.com said that the coursework requires the student to pass the check-up quiz at the end of each of the eight lessons to progress to the next. Upon passing the final exam, the student receives a UST operator training certification to operate and maintain USTs in Texas. 360training.com announced that the certification is valid for three and a half years if the course is taken now..

EPACampus.com is one of the places you can visit, one of 360training.com's website, for Class A/B UST Operator Training and Class C Operator Training.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Sunscreen Balance

Even with the standards and regulations by ISO and the European Committee for Standardization for sunscreen products, industry observers still finds manufacturers of this cosmetology product in need of improvements for their products. 

The right formula for sunscreens is hard to come by given the competing considerations of high sun protection factors (SPF), photostability, pleasant sensory properties, and stringent regulations—as every beauty professional with a cosmetology/beauty license or cosmetology CE credentials will tell you.

First, it has to contend with regulations. The regulatory framework for beauty lines, including sunscreens, is currently being strengthened with the participation of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the European Committee for Standardization.

Industry observers, however, point out that the products of the two groups are currently not harmonized, throwing off efforts of sunscreen manufacturers to deliver innovative, effective products to the market quickly.

Formulations for solar products, for instance, may differ depending on the used protocols—hence the need for the creation of harmonized international and European standards which will facilitate the efforts of formulators.

Second, there is the requirement to be efficient against both ultraviolet B rays (UVBs) and ultraviolet A rays (UVAs), which have different effects on the skin, thus requiring different strategies. UVBs cause sunburns while UVAs, because they penetrate the skin deeper, cause accelerated aging and predispose the skin to develop tumors.

In the United States as well as in Europe, this has resulted in a requirement for a UVA to UVB ratio of 1/3 with a critical wavelength of 370nm, a challenging balance to achieve.

Sun protection, however, goes beyond UVAs or UVBs. Brands must now also contend with formulations that offer sun protection using chemical filters (as in the case of Dermoprotectyl), infrared radiation blockers (Unipex), and synthesized antiaging molecules (Sereniks).

For many sunscreen brands, it is a tricky balancing act to get the right balance for sunscreens.

Safety Stand-Down at Oklahoma Oil and Gas Fields - OSHA

Together with Mid-Continent Exploration and Production Safety or MCEPS, OSHA is sponsoring a safety stand down from June 22 to July 20 to encourage safer practices at all oil and gas exploration and production sites in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma is on safety stand-down now, but not because the 4th of July is coming up. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it, together with the Mid-Continent Exploration & Production Safety (MCEPS) Network, is sponsoring a safety stand-down from June 22 to July 20 to encourage safety and health practices at all oil-and-gas exploration and production sites in Oklahoma.

Although OSHAcampus.com safety training—for instance, OSHA 10 training and OSHA 30—is now required by many employers, many workers are still exposed to unnecessary worksite hazards because of employer negligence, ignorance, or plain disregard of basic safety protocols.

"This alliance will demonstrate initiative and leadership industrywide throughout the state of Oklahoma in emphasizing the importance of oil and gas work-site safety," declared John Hermanson, the OSHA regional administrator in Dallas. "It is hoped that the stand-down will not only heighten awareness for workers in the oil and gas industry, but also identify and eliminate work-related hazards."

According to the work-safety watchdog, MCEPS is a cooperative alliance of OSHA's Oklahoma City Area Office and oil-and-gas industry representatives. Within the stand-down period, the alliance members are expected to encourage employers to voluntarily stop work to carry out site inspections and safety-and-health training for employees. The training centers on the major causes of work-related incidents and deaths in the industry.

OSHA Oklahoma City area director David Bates emphasized that members should participate in the stand-down event, as well as encourage subcontractors to do the same. OSHA has provided training materials to members to be used during the job-site inspections.

Beauty Market Booming For Men

With the increase of men being inclined to skin care and cosmetic products, it has been noticed that men’s grooming has become one of the fastest growing segment in the cosmetology market today.

Time was when metrosexual was just a niche group, an urban thing. This year it has dissolved into the general demographic like gel into slovenly hair. Every male, it seems, is now on the market for skin-care and cosmetic products not just to be fashionably masculine but also to simply feel good. “[I]n 2012, all types of men, in urban and suburban areas, are using male grooming products,” observed Nancy Mills, consumer-practice industry manager for Kline & Company, a market-research firm.

According to premiumbeautynews.com (and beauty professionals who have a cosmetology license or cosmetology Continuing Education credentials), men’s grooming is one of the fastest growing segments in the beauty business today, with sales of men’s skin care in the U.S. seeing the biggest growth in years. The Chicago-based research firm Mintel points out that sales of men’s toiletries in the U.S. this year already stand at a hefty $2.6 billion and predicts they will hit $3.2 billion by 2016.

European sales of skincare products are also booming: 289 million euros in 2005 to 420 million euros in 2010. The growth is particularly significant because it involves France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and UK, Europe’s biggest markets.

This year brands are focusing on creating new products for men, with solutions that go well beyond the de rigueur aftershave and deodorant. Beauty salons and bathroom vanities more and more are seeing powders, anti-aging creams, tinted moisturizers, even concealers branded for men, too.

July 4 OSHA Concerns

Companies and organizations involved in the fireworks/pyrotechnics has been given a good reminder by OSHA  of their duties in enforcing health and safety for their workers for handling fireworks specially for the upcoming 4th of July fireworks show. 

As the 4th of July quickly approaches, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reminds employers in the fireworks/pyrotechnics industry of their duty to always protect their workers from the dangers of handling fireworks for public events—a reminder often repeated in OSHAcampus.com safety training, such as OSHA 10 training and OSHA 30.

For those in the industry, OSHA recommends a visit to its Safety and Health Topics page before Independence Day. Two sections are particularly important to the pyrotechnics industry: retail sales of fireworks and fireworks display. The page describes common hazards and offers solutions to issues found in both areas of the industry. A video, as well as a downloadable poster, on best industry practices for retail sales and manufacturers is also available.

In addition, the OSHA site references such federal standards on consumer use of fireworks as those of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

"As we look forward to celebrating July 4 with fireworks and festivities, we must also consider the safety of workers who handle pyrotechnics," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. "It's the employer's responsibility to keep everyone safe on the job and take appropriate measures to protect workers making, selling, displaying, or otherwise handling dangerous pyrotechnic materials."

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

OSHA Raises Caution as 4th of July Approaches, Safety Stand-Down in Effect in Oklahoma

As the 4th of July quickly approaches, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reminds employers in the fireworks/pyrotechnics industry of their duty to always protect their workers from the dangers of handling fireworks for public events—a reminder often repeated in online OSHAcampus.com training, such as OSHA 10 training and OSHA 30.

For those in the industry, OSHA recommends a visit to its Safety and Health Topics page before Independence Day. Two sections are particularly important to the pyrotechnics industry: retail sales of fireworks and fireworks display. The page describes common hazards and offers solutions to issues found in both areas of the industry. A video, as well as a downloadable poster, on best industry practices for retail sales and manufacturers is also available.

In addition, the OSHA site references such federal standards on consumer use of fireworks as those of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

"As we look forward to celebrating July 4 with fireworks and festivities, we must also consider the safety of workers who handle pyrotechnics," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. "It's the employer's responsibility to keep everyone safe on the job and take appropriate measures to protect workers making, selling, displaying, or otherwise handling dangerous pyrotechnic materials."

Meanwhile, Oklahoma is on safety stand-down now, but not because the 4th of July is coming up. OSHA announced that it, together with the Mid-Continent Exploration & Production Safety (MCEPS) Network, is sponsoring a safety stand-down from June 22 to July 20 to encourage safety and health practices at all oil-and-gas exploration and production sites in Oklahoma.

"This alliance will demonstrate initiative and leadership industrywide throughout the state of Oklahoma in emphasizing the importance of oil and gas work-site safety," declared John Hermanson, the OSHA regional administrator in Dallas. "It is hoped that the stand-down will not only heighten awareness for workers in the oil and gas industry, but also identify and eliminate work-related hazards."

According to the work-safety watchdog, MCEPS is a cooperative alliance of OSHA's Oklahoma City Area Office and oil-and-gas industry representatives. Within the stand-down period, the alliance members are expected to encourage employers to voluntarily stop work to carry out site inspections and safety-and-health training for employees. The training centers on the major causes of work-related incidents and deaths in the industry.

OSHA Oklahoma City area director David Bates emphasized that members should participate in the stand-down event, as well as encourage subcontractors to do the same. OSHA has provided training materials to members to be used during the job-site inspections.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Heavy Penalties for Gun Works and Correctional Facility for Worksite Safety Violations

The operator of a Mississippi correctional facility is in trouble with the law for numerous worksite safety and health violations.

"This employer knowingly put workers at risk of injury or death by failing to implement well-recognized measures that would protect employees from physical assaults by inmates," said Clyde Payne, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) area director in Jackson, Mississippi, in castigating The GEO Group Inc., a correctional and detention organization, for its many safety and health violations, including exposing its employees to workplace violence, a relatively uncommon violation reported to OSHA.

OSHA training, such as OSHAcampus.com 10 hr safety training and OSHA 30, is now required by many employers as hiring requisite. Unfortunately, many workers are still needlessly exposed to worksite hazards because of employer or management negligence, ignorance, or plain disregard of legislated safety protocols.

"Prisons may be inherently dangerous workplaces, but the employer is still required to take every reasonable precaution to protect corrections officers and other staff against safety and health hazards, including assaults," Payne pointed out. All told OSHA discovered six safety and health violations, one of them willful, after its inspection of the correctional facility in December 2011. OSHA proposed penalties amounting to $104,100.

According to OSHA, the willful violation, which rang up a $70,000 penalty, involved the company’s failure to adequately staff its facility, to repair defective cell-door locks, and to train its employees on how to protect themselves from inmate violence, even though it was well aware of all these infirmities.

GEO was also cited for one repeat health violation, carrying a $16,500 penalty, for its failure to carry out medical evaluations for workers required to wear respirators. OSHA cited GEO's Florida facility for a similar violation in November 2010.

Meanwhile, something dangerous but less deadly than violent inmates has visited the gun range of Illinois Gun Works Ltd—lead, that neurotoxic (and carcinogenic) heavy metal.

Recently, OSHA proposed a hefty penalty of $111,000 for Illinois Gun Works Ltd. for 28 alleged health violations after the worksite-safety watchdog’s inspection discovered that two of the company’s gun-range operators had been exposed to airborne lead levels 12 times the allowable level.

"Illinois Gun Works has a responsibility to protect the health of its employees by ensuring that they operate in a manner which eliminates or minimizes lead hazards, including exposure," stated Diane Turek, director of the OSHA Chicago North Area office in Des Plaines.

According to OSHA, 27 of the violations were considered serious, and 13 of them were related to violating the lead standard. The violations included: failure to institute engineering and work practice controls to minimize lead exposure; failure to ascertain the effectiveness of the ventilation system in controlling exposure; failure to provide personnel clean protective clothing; failure to dispose of or replace protective clothing; failure to provide clean changing rooms or separate storage facilities for used protective clothing to prevent contaminating street clothes; failure to require workers exposed to lead to shower after work or to wash their hands and faces before eating during breaks; and failure to have a medical surveillance program for employees exposed to lead at or above the action levels.

Beauty Industry Hails Cosmetic Safety Bill, Damien Carney Opens Trip-to-Hollywood Contest

Consumer safety at saloons – A challenge

The grooming-and-beauty-care industry is finally having a greater say in what goes into the products salon workers use every day in salons and other personal-grooming shops nationwide. This after the Cosmetic Safety Amendments Act of 2012 (H.R. 4395), introduced by Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ), gained more traction not just in Congress but in the industry itself, particularly among the salon professionals with a professional cosmetology license or have cosmetology CE (continuing education) credentials.

“Everyone agrees that we need to update the regulation of personal care products,” noted Rep. Lance in an interview with salontoday.com. “This bill will continue to advance consumer safety and provide a regulatory framework that furthers growth and innovation for American cosmetics manufacturers and small businesses.”

“The Cosmetics Safety Amendments Act of 2012 provides the needed improvements to the current laws regarding cosmetics and personal care products, without placing an undue burden on business or compromising safety,” explained Myra Irizarry, the Professional Beauty Association (PBA) director of government affairs,. “Consumers, manufacturers, distributors and government can in fact work together and PBA, along with our industry partners, are supportive of H.R. 4395.”

PBA believes H.R. 4395 provides the necessary balance between the commercial goals of manufacturers and the needs of the industry on one count, and the offerings of the industry and the needs of consumers on another count. According to the PBA, H.R. 4395 also gives the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) a more influential role in evaluating the safety of personal-care products.

Meanwhile, reprising the old battle cry in glam world, master hairstylist Damien Carney of the Drab-to-Fab fame, threw down a challenge to all would-be upstylists to showcase their styling skills on video for a chance to jet off to Hollywood and cross snippers in the Drab to Fab episode with Carney himself.

Applicants to Joico’s Head-to-Head Challenge, as the contest is called, are required to submit a short video (a minimum of 30 seconds, a maximum of 120 seconds) showing their updo. Contest organizers stated that any camera, including that of an iPhone or an iPad, can be used as long as the video format created complies with YouTube guidelines. The video must be uploaded to the Drab to Fab Head to Head Facebook portal by midnight of July 15, 2012.

Carney and his team of experts will evaluate all entries and shortlist five finalists. The shortlisted videos will be posted online for online voting, which kicks off on July 19, 2012 and ends on August 2, 2012. The voting is open to the public, not just to stylists and consumers.

One lucky winner will be chosen for the junket to Hollywood and dinner with Carney and the Joico team. Also in the winner’s grab bag are a year’s supply of Joico products and guest appearance in a Drab to Fab episode.

NY Aims to Become Healthcare Jobs Hub as Careers in Healthcare Soar

Obama’s administration committed to boost health care sector, 5.6 million healthcare jobs by 2020

Whether or not President Obama’s embattled healthcare reform law clears the Supreme Court, no doubt the healthcare industry is booming as it should. And it will continue to do so, according to a new report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and Workforce, till past year 2020. By then, the industry would have created 5.6 million new healthcare jobs.

The demand for healthcare is soaring, said the Georgetown University report, and most of the job openings are expected to be for: registered nurse, pharmacist, medical office assistant, physical therapist, occupational therapist, clinical laboratory technician, paramedic, and massage therapist.

The healthcare growth rate will be double the rate of the national economy over the next eight years. The main reason? Americans simply seem to care more than ever about their health and are willing to pay for it, spending more per person for healthcare than the average Chinese citizen earns in an entire year.

As a matter of scale, the healthcare industry already makes up 18 percent of the entire U.S. economy and within the next eight years 13 percent of all U.S. jobs will be in healthcare.

The report predicted that Idaho, Georgia, Texas, Utah, and Virginia will experience the greatest growth spurts in healthcare jobs by 2020, with California ranking in the middle among all states.

Healthcare employment now comprises 10 percent of all jobs in California. With an estimated 535,870 jobs openings coming between 2010 and 2020, that percentage will jump to 27 percent.

New York, for its part, is not standing still. Capitalizing on the ever-strengthening trend of growth in the healthcare industry nationwide, the New York State Department of Health, the New York eHealth Collaborative, and the New York City Investment Fund have kicked off a $4.2-million program to spur health IT innovation, create 1,500 new jobs in the state, and make New York a healthcare jobs hub.

In the months ahead, the program—called the New York Digital Health Accelerator (NYDHA)—will select a dozen early- and growth-stage companies that are engaged in designing innovative technology products for healthcare providers. Each company will be awarded up to $300,000 and will receive direct mentorship from senior-level executives of major medical facilities and participating providers.

The chosen companies will focus on developing products that will help the state's Medicaid Redesign Team and its new "Health Homes" program.

"Health information technology is helping us transform our healthcare system to provide high-quality, cost-efficient, and patient-centered care for the 21st century," noted New York State Health Commissioner Nirav R. Shah, MD. "The Digital Health Accelerator program will further advance New York's national leadership in health IT as it will attract leading-edge companies at the forefront of developing the technology necessary for robust electronic health records and digital-care coordination systems."