An $8.4 million infusion of provincial funding will add 64 new seats for future health care assistants at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
KPU, which has one of its five campuses in Langley, is receiving the money as part of a program to expand training for more health workers.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical need for more dedicated health care assistants throughout our province,” said Sharmen Lee, dean of the Faculty of Health at KPU.
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The program will provide education as well as experiential learning to students interested in working in long-term care and assisted living facilities, which have been hit hard by the pandemic, and saw a greater need for staff over the past year.
Students in the program study part-time and work part-time as personal support workers in long-term care and assisted living facilities.
“This is a unique part-time model in which students participate in online learning, in simulated labs and practice within long-term care and assisted living facilities,” said Sharon Leitch, chair of the health care assistant program.
“With this model, they are able to blend learning with employment.”
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