Collin College board of trustees approved a new health professions program on Feb. 23 that would add an associate of applied science degree and a certificate program in health professions beginning in the fall.

Collin College Vice President Brenda Kihl said the health professions program was developed at the request of area high schools participating in the college’s health sciences academy and at the recommendation of the academy’s advisory committee.

Kihl also said the college found that there is a demand for various skills in different health professions such as nurse’s aid, electrocardiogram technician and emergency medical technician.

“These different certifications are going to have an increasing demand in 20-plus-percent increase over the next 10 years,” Kihl said. “We wanted to make sure we were training more students to have these skills … but we also wanted to create a pathway so that students can continue on toward an associate degree and then also a bachelor’s degree.”

Kihl said the program is designed as a stackable credential format, which means students can progress from a certificate to the associate degree and so they can go on to a bachelor’s degree at a university.

“Great thing about it is that at any point along the way as a student finishes a credential, they are more marketable in the workplace,” Kihl said. “[This program] allows a lot of flexibility to the needs of the students.”

Kihl believes this program will open more doors as the college continues to seek out more options for students.

“We are continuously scanning the workforce needs of our health care needs in Collin County to determine what other professions we need to be training and educating our students for,” Kihl said.

The associate degree will require 15 semester credit hours, and the remaining 45 semester credit hours to complete the degree are chosen from among six tracks, including a phlebotomy certification, patient care technician and medical coding/billing certification.

The certification and degree for Collin College students will be offered at only the Central Park campus in McKinney because courses require specific labs. However, the certificates are already being offered at the college’s health sciences academy in Plano ISD to those high school students who are interested in health-related careers.

The college offers an associate degree and certifications in more than 10 health science programs including surgical technology, health care simulation and dental hygiene.