St. Louis Nursing Jobs Prep Snags Funding

A new round of funding will support out-of-work residents who want to train for St Louis nursing jobs.

The U.S. Department of Labor recently awarded more than $4.69 million to Maryville University from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funding will be used to provide nursing and other healthcare training for dislocated and unemployed workers.

Maryville University is a four-year, private university located in west St. Louis County. The school has many healthcare-related undergraduate programs, including: biomedical science, biomedical engineering, music therapy, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, pre-dentistry, pre-medicine, pre-optometry and rehabilitation services.

The school's healthcare-related graduate programs include: music therapy; nursing; nursing with a concentration in adult nurse practitioner, family nurse practitioner or nursing education; rehabilitation counseling; occupational therapy; and doctor of physical therapy.

According to an article by the St. Louis Business Journal, the grant is part of more than $225 million in healthcare and high-growth training funding meant to allow community colleges, community-based organizations, state workforce agencies and other public entities to provide training that leads to employment in healthcare and other growing industries.

Each project supported by the funding - in its sixth and final round - will target regional populations, with $25 million reserved specifically for projects serving communities impacted by automotive industry restructuring.

Although the healthcare industry in St. Louis has remained strong throughout the economic recession, the local economy as a whole could use the additional jobs.

The city's education and health services industry employed 218,900 workers during December 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is the same as during November and a 1.3 percent increase from December 2008.

During December, St. Louis's unemployment rate remained steady at 9.8 percent, following an increase from 9.7 percent during November. The city's current rate was only slightly lower than the national unemployment rate at the time of 10 percent, although that number has now declined to 9.7 percent.

St. Louis had a total non-farm employment of 1,320,400 workers during December, which is down from 1,322,100 workers during November and a 2.5 percent decrease from the previous year.