Rural Communities Recruit Well Trained Foreign Workers for Hard to Fill Jobs

The Montana Gap

LeAnne Kavanagh, Editor, Bank Pioneer Press | Mar 15, 20180

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Mary Jell Capillo, RN, is experiencing winter for the first time. A native of the Philippines, Capillo arrived in Montana four months ago. She is one of four Filipino nurses working at Northern Rockies Medical Center in Cut Bank.

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Shelby Schools Superintendent Elliott Crump knows first-hand about the teacher shortage in Montana. The Montana Office of Public Instruction reported 638 full-time openings in the state's "difficult or hard to fill" teaching positions in 2016-17 and Crump's school district had four of them. When no qualified applicants from Montana–or anywhere else in the United States–applied for those jobs, he started looking outside the United States and ended up hiring four teachers from the Philippines.

Cherie Taylor, CEO at Northern Rockies Medical Center in Cut Bank, currently has four Filipino nurses o...