DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A partnership is getting Wisconsin college graduates out into the workforce quicker.
The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) and the Wisconsin Association of College and Universities (WAICU) introduced the LicensE Educator Access Portal (LEAP), a new tool that colleges and universities can use help facilitate licensing for their graduates applying to work in Wisconsin.
The portal offers Wisconsin colleges an opportunity to connect directly to the department’s licensing system and approve graduation in bulk, electronically.
The goal is to get students’ licenses as quickly as possible so they can start filling open positions sooner than later.
Dan Hereth, secretary of the Department of Safety and Professional Services, says it’s the first partnership of his knowledge in the nation and it will help further streamline licensing for in-demand health care jobs.
“The reality is that, especially for healthcare licenses, there are many requirements and often they have to happen iteratively, so the faster we can move them through those iterations, the faster we can get them into the workforce and as you all know, employers are desperate for talent right now,” Hereth said.
DSPS switched to LEAP about a year-and-a-half ago.
Thanks to temporary federal relief funding, DSPS as able to hire more staff to reduce its time for reviewing application materials from several weeks to 2-3 days.
LEAP will also allow participating colleges and universities to electronically notify DSPS when a student meets graduation requirements, as opposed to the previous process of manually uploading a statement of graduation for each individual license application.
Both DSPS and WAICU believe the result will be smoother, faster credentialing of the next generation of health care workers, including in nursing, pharmacy, and other fields where Wisconsin needs more workers.
DSPS is also working towards an agreement to offer LEAP to programs in the Wisconsin Technical College System.
