It appears to be a growing trend that high schools are preparing their students for careers in the health care industry.

This isnt a surprising phenomenon.  I think that there are two primary reasons that this is becoming more popular and why these types of programs have seen  initial success.  Healthcare providers, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and other medical facilities are under huge supply shortages for medical workers, and high school students who are not good candidates for college, can still learn the necessary skills to get good paying medical jobs.

There are a lot of reasons for the shortage in medical professionals that we wont go into.  However, we do know that the insurance companies have also pushed to get non-physicians into the role of primary care-givers.  By, having larger groups of medical workers supervised by highly-trained physicians, HMO's become more cost-efficient and are better geared to meet the healthcare demands of the US baby-boomers.

One of the programs I recently read about was through the The Mayo Clinic Career Awareness Program in the Rochester Public School system.  According to an article in the Post-Bulletin (postbulletin.com), the program includes career festivals, job shadowing, mentorships, apprenticeships, and classes at the high schools.

The students that are taking advantage of these programs, are the ones that might not attend college.  They are most likely to enter the workforce after graduation, and in a great position to begin training.  From there, they have the skill sets to get good paying jobs in a relatively exciting environment.  

These options are much better than most options available to individuals without a college degree.

I'm looking forward to see how this program develops, and how popular it becomes throughout the nation.