(upbeat music) - We're now joined by Frank Preston, President and CEO of ACI Medical and Dental School.

Frank, good to see you.

- As well, Steve, thank you.

- Is it your 20th anniversary?

- It is, Steve, yes.

20 years this year.

- Congratulations.

Tell everyone what the school is, because this is all about vocational education outside of what people think may be the only way, going to traditional college, it ain't.

Please.

- ACI Medical and Dental School, as you said, started 20 years ago and we have two programs that we really specialized in.

We're an accredited by middle stage colleges and schools and our two programs is Medical Assistant with Phlebotomy, EKG, and Patient Care and our Dental Assistant with Radiology Licensing.

Both of those programs are accelerating and within four months, you're starting your internship and, or your employment.

- I love it.

By the way, to the English teachers who write to me, send me emails, text messages, "Hey, Steve, ain't was not appropriate."

I did that on purpose.

I know it's not, I just wanna clarify that.

So do this for us.

Vocational education.

There are some people like Gary Vaynerchuk.

I don't know if people have watched Gary Vaynerchuk, who is a social media maven, if you will, who's been on with us many times who has said, "Traditional college is not for everyone and there are other ways to succeed in life professionally."

And he talks a lot about vocational education.

Question, is vocational slash technical education, Frank, becoming bigger and more important than ever before?

And if so, why?

- Yes, I do feel it's becoming bigger and more validated than any time in the past.

A vocational education is a pathway, or at least in the medical and dental profession, you know, within four and a half weeks, like we've talked about, 14 weeks or three and a half months, 14 weeks, people are able to get the clinical and that didactic skillset that they need to be able to be successful on the front line.

Many of our students, after they complete that and are working in the medical or hospitals or dental practices, are going on to nursing, they're going on to become physician's assistants.

They're going on to become hygienists, but they're getting a jumpstart and they're working within their profession while they pursue the pathway to continual education.

Nothing wrong with just being a professional medical assistant or a dental assistant, but it becomes a pathway.

You don't have to go right to a four year program to get what you need to be able to start a career.

And so you can stop at any point, but at the end of the day, it's a professional career that is in demand.

- Frank, how did you find yourself into this role and into this field?

- Great question.

My mother and father always told us, whatever you're good at, just keep doing it.

I was a special education teacher at a college and a school principal, and I found myself back in New Jersey 22 years ago and found the need for short-term quality post-secondary education.

So I got an opportunity to open that door and start ACI Medical and Dental School and since then, it's been a work in progress, being accredited by middle states college and schools.

We have an advisory board, so Hackensack, RWJ, Center State, many, many smaller practices, larger practices sit on our advisory board and they come and do presentations to our students before they complete their didactic and clinical on campus.

And they're offering employment opportunities right away so that they know where they're going and they know who they're receiving once they complete their didactic on campus.

- You know Frank, something you're saying is, one of the things you're saying that's particularly interesting to me.

So, we're fortunate.

We have... Several of our kids who are in college, one who's graduated, my first son, and out working gainfully, but I was talking to our older son, my wife and I, our son Nick, and he's trying to figure out, he's graduated with a degree in Philosophy and a great hardworking student and proud of him, but I also know that as he is graduating in May of 2025, and I know that I'd speak for millions of parents whose kids may have done well in school, were like, "Okay, now what?"

Meaning, he's trying to figure it out like everyone else, but it's not a career.

It hasn't been a career advancement path where it's particularly clear where he is going, and my point is this, how often do you see people who've done well academically in a more traditional four-year school who have absolutely no idea what they're gonna do?

- Steve, that's a great question.

Our school has many, many students to have a four-year college degree, that has a two-year college degree or have attempted the four and two, but weren't successful.

So our population is really made up of all types of students in the population.

We have people here that are in health sciences going to Rutgers full-time, Monmouth University and other schools.

They find themselves coming to our school fourth semester to get the didactic, the clinical, and the terminology, anatomy, their physiology and cardio and then start working in the hospitals or local practices while they're continuing their four-year degree and they're finding themselves in a position sometimes where they're getting tuition reimbursement while they're in the hospital or while they're practicing the skillset that they're receiving from us and then continuing their path into nursing.

So it doesn't have to be that just the non-traditional students, we have empty-nesters, recently divorced people.

People who are on their third and fourth career.

One of the things I have found over the years and been validated, that healthcare is not age-discriminatory in any way.

They really prefer more mature women and men who have had their children, who have done different things that can relate to the patient experience and that's what they're training.

At the end of the day, our graduates and the people who are hiring them are for the skill sets and the medical and dental, but they really are hiring 'em to represent their practices and their hospitals, to enhance the patient experience.

So those soft skills are taught at ACI Medical and Dental School, on how to have those interpersonal skills, problem solving and multitasking, to optimize those outcomes.

- Wait a minute, did you just say Frank, that people who spend most of their day on a phone may not know how to interact interpersonally with people?

Are you saying such a controversial thing?

(Steve laughing) It's just a fact.

Hey, last, before I let you go, use shortage of certain kinds of healthcare professionals, your students, your school and your students are helping to fill that gap?

- Yes, absolutely.

Yes.

- Nursing shortage.

What other field has a significant shortage?

Physician shortages outside of where you are.

We talked to a lot of folks in the medical education community.

Is there another field, before I let you go, Frank, that is clearly there's a shortage and we need more folks there?

- It's, well, the patient care techs, and medical assistants that come to our school and they receive up to four national credentials and that's again, patient care tech, phlebotomy tech, EKG tech and certified medical assistance.

So those credentials, there's a shortage of graduates out there to feed the frontline and that's why the RWJs and the Hackensacks and Family First urgent cares, they're coming to present to our students before they complete their didactic and clinical and hiring them on the spot so that they know where they're going, they know who they're receiving.

There is a shortage.

- Frank Preston, President and CEO of ACI Medical and Dental School, celebrating their 20th anniversary.

Frank, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- You're so welcome, Steve.

Nice talking with you.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Johnson & Johnson.

PSE&G.

The North Ward Center.

New Jersey’s Clean Energy program.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

The Adler Aphasia Center.

And by EJI, Excellence in Medicine Awards.

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