Profile Derek Holmes
On-the-job training to overcome work experience gaps
Medical Assistant in the Department of Dermatology in Drexel’s College of Medicine
Derek Holmes really enjoys the work he does, and he loves the interaction he has with doctors, residents, and patients as they come through Drexel Medicine’s Department of Dermatology. The West Philadelphia resident came to the job with six years’ experience working in banking as well as eleven years in services for children with autism, and three years working with older adults with mental disabilities. He went back to school at age 51, enrolling in a medical assistant training program at the Harris School of Business in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.
The West Philadelphia resident came to the job with six years’ experience working in banking as well as eleven years in services for children with autism, and three years working with older adults with mental disabilities. He went back to school at age 51, enrolling in a medical assistant training program at the Harris School of Business in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.
After completing an internship with a family practice, Holmes then began a new job search where he became caught up in a “Catch 22” situation, in which every employer wanted to hire someone who had acquired years of medical assistant experience, but he could not obtain that experience without first gaining employment. During this time he also suffered the misfortune of fracturing his shoulder, which required a span of physical therapy, slowing his job search even more.
He had no luck until someone at the Harris School told him about the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative’s collaboration with Drexel around a customized job training and placement program for medical assistants. To qualify for this paid on-the-job training program he needed to live in West Philadelphia, to be unemployed, and to hold his medical assistant certification – all a fit – so he was in.
The program started with a training review – a refresher to ensure he was ready for placement. He had to complete information technology training, passing all of the classes with no room for failure, understandably. There was classroom time on topics like conflict management and office culture. There was a gradually stepped-up schedule of time spent in the dermatology practice he was being placed in. He felt a great deal of pressure, but his ambition kept him on track. Holmes graduated from the program with flying colors, near the top of his training cohort. Medical assistants don’t put the books down for long, though: in February each year he will do re-assessment training to make sure his skills remain “on point.”
Now Holmes works in a busy office that handles 120 patients each day. He works on a team where, surprisingly, there is “no friction,” and he has “never worked around such a positive group of people.” Some days the busy pace can begin to be frustrating, but of this he says, “I enjoy being busy. If you’re looking for a slow pace, this is not the place.”
Holmes says he “will always be grateful for the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative. I was in the right place at the right time. I was fortunate. I worked hard from day one. They believed in me. They were always supportive.” He says he had “no preconceived notion about Drexel,” but of the work, “I really enjoy it. I love it.”