Since 2018, Texarkana College has offered an Allied Health Professions program to students looking to work in the healthcare industry. According to Allied Health Coordinator Joanne Rose, the college offers education in numerous fields of expertise and at convenient times for the average working citizen.
“The courses that we offer are basically ones that train the student in background knowledge and also hands-on skills training for the majority of the classes,” Rose said. “The classes are held in the evenings and there are a few Saturdays scheduled within the course, but basically it’s Mondays through Thursdays. Some courses will be on specific days like Mondays and Wednesdays etc., but they’re all scheduled in the evening, so this provides opportunities to people who are working somewhere else or have other things in their lives that are keeping them from coming to a class during the day,” Rose added.
Texarkana College has a menu of seven courses in the Allied Health area that include: Certified Nurse Aid, Clinical Medical Assisting, Dental Assisting, Medical Billing and Coding, Medication Aid, Pharmacy Technician and Phlebotomy Technician. These courses are offered every semester. Texarkana college currently offers Fall, Spring and Summer semesters.
“Our courses range from 12 weeks to 16 weeks and are based on the skill set for that particular discipline, but the goal is to get students trained and give them clinical experience as well as certification so that they can get through in four months maximum and be able to get out there and get a better paying job or better wage, and then obtain those credentials. That’s the goal, for their employment in the healthcare profession,” Rose said.
Texarkana College also offers several options to help students pay for these courses. “We have some courses that are funded through the workforce,” Rose said. “But all the courses have funding available through our Adult Education Program, which helps students financially by allowing them to pay for half of the course upfront, and then we put the other half on a payment plan for the student,” Rose said.
“We’re working on more funding options for students because these courses are noncredit, and FAFSA and student loans are not eligible to fund these courses, so we’re working on other resources to provide our students with funding,” Rose added. “That’s the only roadblock we have and we’re working on getting approved through the GI bill and some other things so hopefully that will be available soon,” she said.
“We do have a payment plan, and like I said some of our courses are funded through workforce and all of them are funded through Billed Education for at least half the registration fee. We’re also working on a scholarship application that will be available by this summer if not sooner,” said Rose.
More information such as course catalogs and course information packets can be found at www.ce.texarkanacollege.edu. “We also have seminars for Healthcare professionals that we schedule so people can continue with their certification by obtaining their continuing education hours, “ Rose added.
