Rocky Boy clinic offering new apprenticeship program

Rocky Boy Health Center, in partnership with Reach Higher Montana, is offering a new youth apprenticeship program for high school students looking to go into the health care field.

Rocky Boy Health Center CEO Joel Rosette said the center has been working to set up the program since last summer, and it’s an exciting opportunity for them and for local young people.

“The opportunity to grow is what we’re offering,” Rosette said.

Applicants would make $14 an hour for their work, would earn up to $1,500 per year for tuition and fee assistance for higher education and graduate with a certificate and possible college credit.

Rosette said they are still working on some aspects of the college credits and are hoping to eventually offer nursing assistant certificates, but the program already offers experience in a number of positions through a health center like theirs.

Those positions would include data and research assistant, dental assistant, pre-nursing, behavioral health aide, pharmacy technician, athletic training trainee and physical therapy trainee.

Rosette said these apprenticeships are designed to expose young people not just to one job, but to the inner workings of a health center, helping them understand not just one role, but how many different roles fit together to form a functioning entity.

He said a lot of students look for opportunities to get right into the work as soon as possible and he feels like apprenticeships are coming back into fashion for that reason, so it’s a great opportunity for students.

As for the health center, he said, not only do they gain the assistance of the apprentices, but potentially create a pipeline to future employment at the center or the local community.

He said there is a lot of need in the community, and across rural Montana in general, particularly in behavioral health, and a program can potentially help with that.

“We’re always looking,” Rosette said. “As rural health care, that’s always a tough spot, getting applicants that want to live and work in rural Montana.”

He said he also hopes the program will help familiarize participants with the local community and the benefits of working there.

He said he hopes for at least 10 participants in the program and even if only two or three end up at the center later, that’s a huge boon for them, and will make the program well-worth their investment.

“That will be a big deal,” he said.

Rosette said they are reaching out to local schools, which they have a good relationship with, to talk about how to coordinate on the program.