Case Study
How Mass General Brigham Built a Sustainable Healthcare Workforce Pipeline That's Ready to Work
Three years, 23,000 enrollments, and 900+ placements later
- 30 Nov, 2025
- 8 min read
In this case study
Table of Contents
"The Ready to Work Program has fundamentally transformed how we approach allied health recruitment at Mass General Brigham. By creating meaningful career opportunities for local residents and reducing barriers to employment, we've strengthened our workforce and significantly enhanced our capacity to deliver high-quality patient care." Colleen Moran, Director of Workforce Development, Mass General Brigham
The Challenge: Critical Gaps in Frontline Healthcare
Mass General Brigham (MGB), Massachusetts’ largest employer with 82,000 employees, faced a problem that threatened their ability to deliver quality patient care: severe shortages in critical allied health positions. Medical assistants and patient care technicians — the frontline roles essential to daily operations — were hard to find and even harder to retain.
The situation was getting worse. By 2030, Massachusetts residents aged 65 and older will increase by nearly 30% compared to 2020 levels. The 85+ population? Nearly doubling. More patients. More demand for care. Fewer people to provide it.
Traditional approaches weren’t cutting it. MGB had been partnering with local colleges to sponsor cohorts of 20 students. The result? They’d hire only 10-20% of graduates. Cost-per-hire climbed exponentially above industry averages while staffing gaps persisted.
MGB needed a different path forward — one that could scale, remove financial barriers for candidates, and create real career opportunities for underserved communities.
The Solution: Partnership That Delivers
In September 2022, MGB teamed up with WeLearn Learning Services and University of Massachusetts Global to launch Ready to Work. With support from a Good Jobs Challenge grant, the program set an ambitious goal: place 1,000 individuals into allied health roles within three years.
Three things make Ready to Work different:
- Performance-based funding – WeLearn and UMass Global only get paid when candidates are hired and stay in role for 30 days. No placements, no payment. This aligned everyone’s success with candidate success.
- Built for scale – Instead of limiting enrollment to small cohorts, the program opens wide. Using Indeed job postings, Ready to Work created a massive intake funnel. Over 50,000 people have responded. More than 23,000 have enrolled.
- Zero barriers – Candidates receive training at no cost. No tuition. No hidden fees. This opens healthcare careers to people who would otherwise be locked out.
The learning model is hybrid — self-paced online coursework combined with hands-on lab sessions and dedicated career support. It’s designed for working adults who can’t put their lives on hold to train for a new career.
"The Ready to Work Program demonstrates how collaboration and innovation can bridge educational pathways and workforce needs," says Reagan Forlenzo, Director of Corporate & International Education at UMass Global. "By removing barriers and creating meaningful opportunities, we're not just filling roles — we're fostering career growth and contributing to the strength and sustainability of the healthcare workforce."
Listening, Learning, Adapting
WeLearn and the Ready to Work team didn’t launch and walk away. They listened to candidates, analyzed progression data, and made the program better.
The initial model was straightforward: candidates enrolled in self-paced online courses, attended in-person labs after completing 50% of coursework, then worked with career services on resumes and applications. Average time to completion? Three and a half months.
The data revealed opportunities. Candidate feedback highlighted concerns. So the team adapted.
By January 2023, three major enhancements went live:
Virtual instructor lectures – Five optional evening sessions that debrief key curriculum elements. These serve two purposes: they help candidates trust the program is real (many were skeptical about “free training”), and they build personal connections between candidates and the instructors they’ll see in labs.
The Watch Code System – A tracking mechanism that identifies candidates as they progress and flags those closest to being job-ready. When candidates hit 75% online completion and finish both hands-on labs, they’re invited to work with career services immediately.
Certification review sessions – Virtual prep sessions help candidates feel confident sitting for their national certification exams.
Impact? Immediate. Average completion time dropped from three months to two months — a 33% reduction.
The team kept going. Three more enhancements followed:
Career Services Day (March 2024) – Held the Friday before monthly hands-on labs, this event gives candidates direct access to advisors for resume help and MGB applications. WeLearn provides laptops and in-person support. This single change doubled monthly applications.
Interview prep workshops (April 2024) – MGB workforce development runs hour-long sessions focused on their interview process. Candidates ask questions directly. Anxiety drops. Confidence rises.
Job fairs (piloted November 2024) – Fourteen hiring managers and talent acquisition professionals met with over 90 candidates in one day. Twenty hires resulted from that first event. Monthly job fairs started in April 2025.
Every enhancement came from listening to candidates and examining what the data showed. Every change improved the experience without increasing program costs.
Real Results, Real Impact
700+ placements at Mass General Brigham
200+ placements with other regional healthcare employers
79% retention rate at six months — well above industry averages
23,000+ total enrollments from diverse communities across Massachusetts
The program is on track to meet its 1,000 placement goal. The City of Boston and Economic Development Administration recently extended the grant to August 2026 — a vote of confidence in both the model and the outcomes.
Beyond the numbers, Ready to Work has strengthened workforce diversity, improved cultural competence within patient care teams, and created real economic mobility for Boston’s underserved communities.
What's Next
Ready to Work has become a model for community-based workforce development. MGB and its partners are focused on:
- Enhancing candidate tracking for more personalized support
- Expanding employer-led workshops and career services
- Scaling the job fair model to additional locations
- Deepening connections between workforce development and community health
As Colleen Moran puts it: “This initiative has become a cornerstone of our strategic vision, directly aligning workforce development with our commitment to community health and equity.”
For Mass General Brigham, Ready to Work isn’t just a recruitment program. It’s a partnership that elevates people, strengthens communities, and builds a healthcare workforce ready for what’s ahead.
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