Susie Shawan, secretary of Louisiana Works (formerly the Louisiana Workforce Commission), told the House Education Committee during an off-site meeting in New Orleans on Oct. 8 that the state must judge health-care education-to-workforce pathways by whether graduates remain employed in Louisiana at good wages.

Shawan said Louisiana Works is focused on two principal workforce gaps—skilled trades and health care—and that many valuable health-care openings do not require multi‑year degree programs. "We absolutely must base our evaluations of the quality of the pathways based on whether or not the people that complete them end up making good wages for long periods of time in Louisiana," she told members.

Nut graf: Shawan urged a shift away from assuming credential type or program labels imply labor-market success. Instead, she recommended expanding shorter, lower‑cost credentials, increasing work‑based learning across clinical and nonclinical health roles, and strengthening employer ties so community programs can adapt to changing regional demand.

She said the state should look beyond traditional clinical roles to the many health‑sector jobs in IT, accounting and administration that support health providers—and which will face competition as the industry grows. She also pressed for more flexible pathways to serve rural providers and residents: "We need to ask and really require our education providers to be flexible and adaptive and recognize the fact that they are gonna have to move their programming around," she said.

Policy options and funding tools discussed included retooling elements of the HERO Fund to incentivize program expansion, using federal Pell grants for shorter credentials, and a proposed dedicated health workforce fund. Shawan said the recently expanded Pell eligibility for short-term credentials is a "really exciting opportunity" because it lowers time-and-cost barriers.

Committee members pressed for specifics. Rep. Brett Brass (paraphrasing constituent reports) asked whether roughly 800 students were denied nursing program entry last year; Shawan said she had heard the number and would follow up to confirm. Rep. Kim Carver pressed about connecting industry partners and community colleges; Shawan said industry-provided instructors or trainers are "absolutely the best way" to align programs with employer needs but acknowledged incentives for that are limited and worth exploring. Rep. Taylor urged focused work on rural hospitals and asked for help getting a hospital established in St. John Parish; Shawan committed Louisiana Works would work regionally with partners to target solutions.

Shawan also described the agency's intent to use a regional-hub model (authorized in recent legislation) to convene local stakeholders, coordinate wraparound services such as child care or transportation, and provide case management via a "one‑door" model so barriers to training and employment can be addressed at the local level.

Ending: Shawan said Louisiana Works and partner organizations will return to the legislature with implementation details and asked members to remain engaged as the agency develops regional hubs and program incentives.