Jill Biden to learn about expanding health care career opportunities in KC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - One Kansas City college is getting ready for a big visit Monday afternoon. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, is stopping by Metropolitan Community College.

Biden will learn how MCC is educating students in the health care technology field. The college recently received more than $3 million to refine that program, and it's good timing.

Just last week, Cerner broke ground in Kansas City, Kan., on a new campus that will be home to 4,000 health care technology workers. It's what leaders like to see at the business and technology campus at Metropolitan Community College.

"There's a demand for truly skilled people in this arena," said MCC business and technology president Deborah Goodall.

Cerner's KCK expansion validates that. Goodall says health care IT is one of the hottest career fields right now.

"The technician who can manage the IT side and the health information side of the electronic health record," said Goodall.

There's such a demand that MCC has actually partnered with Cerner and local hospitals. That's one reason Goodall is so excited to show off the program to Biden, a longtime educator and community college advocate.

"We have reconfigured our IT curriculum, we have developed a new degree in systems administration, which is the type of worker they need," said Goodall.

Goodall says that makes the MCC program stronger and puts students at a competitive advantage.

Biden is scheduled to visit at 12:30 on Monday.