36 students from all over Grey Bruce recently celebrated the completion of their personal support worker training program at Georgian College in Owen Sound.
An event to recognize the milestone was held last week at the Sydenham Campus.
YMCA Coordinator of Workforce Development Sharon Baynham says there were students from Southampton, Port Elgin, Hanover Durham, Walkerton, Lion’s Head, Wiarton and other local communities.
She says some were upgrading qualifications to become PSWs, noting many were employed as unqualified support aids in long-term care homes. “Half of our trainees were already working in long-term care and the other half were not.”
Baynham says all have found employment as PSWs as a result of the program.
She notes, what sets this recent program apart from others is the support offered to the students.
Participants received financial support through a collaboration between the YMCA Owen Sound Grey Bruce Employment Services, 19 local long-term care employers, Grey County Economic Development, Georgian College continuing education and the Adult Learning Centre Grey Bruce.
Baynham says there were two cohorts going through the training, one was full-time and one was part-time. “The reason we wanted to do the part-time group was so that people could continue to work and also do their training as well, because we know that having to give up work to go to college is something that prevents people from going to college,” says Baynham.
She says, “We provided them with pretty much anything that basically was a barrier to them completing their training, so for some people that may have been loaning them a laptop or loaning them a wifi stick so they could get internet. We provided them with all the supports to get their first-aid training, their scrubs, we assisted them with transportation to do the lab skills here in Owen Sound as well.”
“Basically, any way in which we could help them,” says Baynham.
“On top of the actual tuition costs when you go to college, there can be a lot of others costs too,” she adds.
This project followed an Essential Skills Support Care Working training in the previous year and was initiated based on feedback from participants and our long term care employers who continue to deal with a shortage of workers. Baynham says the training was made possible through funding from the Ministry of Labour Immigration Training Skills Development through the Skills Development Fund.