The severe shortage of healthcare workers is one reason that Jason Naidich is happy that the Northwell School of Health Sciences will open in September.

Naidich is the chief learning and innovation officer at Northwell Health, the healthcare system that helped develop the brand-new high school’s curriculum. The hope is that it will prepare and train students for healthcare careers, and that some students will one day work at Northwell, which employs 89,000 people at its 21 hospitals and roughly 900 outpatient facilities. Yet, the school’s mission goes beyond creating an employee pipeline to create a path to good-paying jobs for New York City residents.

“We do a lot of work in underserved communities. And when you talk to the high school students there, most don't know these opportunities even exist,” Naidich said, adding that part of Northwell’s mission is to improve the health of the people it serves, and that good-paying jobs help people take better care of themselves.

The new school is an extension of Northwell’s partnership with the New York City Board of Education, through which it already provides various services, such as mentoring and internships, to four city high schools, and the opportunity to earn college credit and professional certifications.

Keep reading here.—TA

President Trump’s picks to lead the Department of Labor sat for questioning from the Senate last week, but his deputy labor secretary nominee, Keith Sonderling, didn’t appear to have all the answers.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) asked Sonderling, who spent four years as a commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a series of questions about what’s considered DEI under the Trump administration’s executive orders. She first asked if training for people with disabilities is considered DEI. Sonderling said the government is still required to abide by the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that under his leadership, he would continue providing that training.

“So that is not DEI?” Sen. Murray asked. “That is a civil rights statute that the department enforces to make sure that disabled people can prosper in the workplace,” Sonderling replied.

Sonderling isn’t the only one who doesn’t know exactly what programs are considered DEI.

Keep reading here.—KP

Love is Blind asks a simple question: Is love truly blind? But imagine if it asked: Would you marry some rando just to keep your job?

Where in the world? That’s essentially what Shuntian Chemical Group, a company based in eastern China, asked its employees recently. The company recently garnered attention for telling its single workers ages 28–58 that they had until Sept. 30 to start a family, NBC News reported. Employees were also told their relationship status would be evaluated by the company.

The directive apparently violated China’s labor laws, which prohibit employers from asking potential employees about their family plans. Fittingly, Shuntian Chemical Group withdrew the directive on Valentine’s Day, just one day after local officials visited the company.

Satellite view. While we can’t imagine other employers doing something this off the wall, companies and countries in East Asia are providing more incentives—from on-site daycare to four-day workweeks—to encourage people to have children amid falling birth rates, HR Brew previously reported.

Keep reading here.—KP