Ottawa, December 4, 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the critical role that personal support workers play in our healthcare system. The shortage of personal support workers has been growing in recent years and has significantly increased with the current pandemic.
That is why today, the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, announced $23.2 million in funding for Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) to develop and implement an accelerated online program to train approximately 4,000 new personal support worker interns. The program includes six weeks of online training followed by a four-month paid work-integrated learning placement with an employer in long-term care or home care. This new training program will be offered at no cost to the trainees. These new personal support worker interns will provide much needed support to long-term care staff, as they receive training on the job.
As part of this project, CICan will work in collaboration with provinces, territories, employers, workers’ organizations, unions and training providers to begin a national dialogue on training standards for the supportive care sector.
For more information, please see the Government of Canada’s news release.