ACC health-care aide program moving ahead
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/05/2023 (1086 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
After the program’s future was put in doubt, Assiniboine Community College will continue its comprehensive health-care aide program in the upcoming academic year with rural rotating sites in Brandon, Birtle and Reston.
The certificate program will commence in all three communities starting Sept. 11, with each site having a capacity of 22 students.
Similar to previous years, the program will be hosted in institutions like Birtle Collegiate and Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School to offer high school students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the medical field before graduating.
The experience allows students to enter post-secondary schooling with a college credit already in their back pocket, teeing them up for a future career in medicine.
“The demand for skilled health-care aides is high,” Assiniboine president Mark Frison stated in a news release last week.
“We know this program will be able to help support this need in the province, while providing terrific career pathways for individuals to pursue.”
While the initiative has been in place for more than a decade, its future was put in jeopardy last year when the Brandon School Division’s board of trustees voted to remove funding for the program (around $45,000) from its 2022-23 operating budget to make up for a deficit.
This forced Assiniboine to step up to the plate and fund the program entirely by itself, which will continue into the upcoming school year, since BSD decided to omit the initiative from its 2023-24 budget as well.
“It would have been nice to offer this program, but it’s the only program where we pay the fees for post-secondary education, which is not our mandate,” BSD board chairperson Linda Ross said in February.
“I’m sure if we had infinite money that we would do that. But we don’t have infinite money.”
Assiniboine managed to move some money around and attract new participants from outside of Brandon, having previously established its program through rural rotating sites in communities like Souris, Carberry, Glenboro, Virden and various First Nations.
For anyone interested in applying for this year’s comprehensive health-care aide program, Assiniboine will host an in-person information session at Reston’s R.E.S. Centre (143 Third Ave.) at 6 p.m. on May 30.
To register for the information session, visit assiniboine.net/infosessions. For more information on the program, visit assiniboine.net/programs/comprehensive-health-care-aide.
» The Brandon Sun