A state grant of $1.5 million will help Moraine Valley Community College expand health care education programs at its Tinley Park location, officials said at a news conference this week.
In announcing the grant, which has not yet been received by the school in Palos Hills, officials with Moraine Valley and Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox also said the college and hospital are establishing a partnership under which nursing students will do part of their hands-on training at Silver Cross facilities.
State Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Frankfort, called it a “groundbreaking partnership” during a news conference Monday at Moraine’s Southwest Education Center in Tinley Park, on 179th Street east of La Grange Road.
Pamela Haney, Moraine Valley president, said enrollment at the Tinley Park satellite location in the basic nursing assistant training program is up more than 11% this fall compared with fall of last year.
The college said it will prioritize a basic nursing assistant training certificate program at the Tinley Park location.
It will need regulatory approval, and if that comes Moraine Valley plans to establish the certificate program next fall. Moraine said the basic nurse assistant training certificate is a requirement for enrollment in the school’s nursing program.
Haney said the state grant will enable Moraine Valley to increase capacity in its nursing programs, and meet growing demand for health care careers. Along with the basic nursing training program, the college hopes to institute at least one other health care course at the Tinley Park location in the fall of 2026.
Hastings said the grant would come from the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity as part of the “Rebuild Illinois” capital program. He said that Moraine Valley will need to complete a grant application.
Michael Mutterer, Silver Cross president and chief executive, said that students in Moraine Valley’s nursing program, as part of the new partnership, would be able to do their required clinical rotations through the hospital.
The hands-on experience can also lead to a full-time job, as Silver Cross hires several nursing students who work at the hospital as part of their college training.
Mutterer said Silver Cross has similar partnerships with Joliet Junior College and Lewis University.
State Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said at a news conference announcing the grant that community colleges such as Moraine Valley are economic development drivers, and that jobs in health care they train students for “are career track jobs that people can hold for decades.”
Cunningham noted that significant new developments, particularly in the southwest suburbs, have been focused on health care.
“We have an aging population in our area,” the senator said. “A lot of good jobs emanate from these health care centers.”
Loyola Medicine in the summer of last year opened a large medical center directly west of Moraine Valley’s Tinley Park campus, at the southeast corner of 179th Street and La Grange Road in Tinley Park. In March, Silver Cross opened its medical center in Orland Park at the southeast corner of La Grange Road and 171st Street.
Mutterer said there is a projected shortage of “tens of thousands of health care workers” over the next decade, and that help such as the state grant will help train people to fill those vacancies.
The new Silver Cross clinic in Orland Park offers services in areas including primary care, obstetrics and oncology, and Mutterer said Moraine Valley nursing students would be able to do training as part of their education at that location as well as at the main hospital in New Lenox.
