Beverly Hospital Salutes Graduates Of First ESL Program

BEVERLY, MA — A collaboration between Beverly Hospital and North Shore Community College is designed to open more career paths for the hospital's ESL employees.

The 15-week employer-sponsored program helps hospital employees improve their English skills. Eight employees took advantage of the program and received a certificate of completion from North Shore Community College.

"By increasing accessibility to English-language programs it can open career paths and promote career growth for employees," said Tom Sands, president of Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals. "It can also help retain and promote a diverse workforce, improve employee morale, and help make colleagues feel more confident at work."

The self-paced learning course was aimed at improving employees' abilities to communicate effectively in their daily routines and improve interactions with many colleagues and patients.

"The pilot program received great feedback from the participants and we are offering it again," said Marvin Russell, interim vice president of Human Resources at Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals. "We want to continue fostering opportunities for all colleagues to develop their careers with the hospital.

"We see such positive employee engagement when employees feel supported in this way."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)