Confederation College program aims to solve Dryden's PSW shortage

Confederation College is launching a new program in Dryden, Ont., aimed at addressing the city's shortage of personal support workers.

The living classroom program will get students learning on the job from the moment they start studying, college president Jim Madder told CBC News.

"You'd go in and learn theory, and then in the living lab part itself you'd be working with patients applying that theory," Madder said. "So that [you] literally could be learning the theory in the morning and going across and applying it in the afternoon."

"But also, you could actually work and be paid part time."

The program is a partnership with three local service providers: the District ofKenora Home for the Aged, Patricia Region Senior Services, and ParaMed.

It launches this fall with space for 14 to 16 students and should graduate its first cohort next spring, Madder said.

The college piloted the program in Kenora last year and saw positive results, according to Kevin Queen, the chief executive officerand district administrator for the District of Kenora Home for the Aged, which also partnered in thepilot.

Seven students are set to graduate later this spring, Queen said; the last time the college offered a PSW course in Kenora, only one person graduated, he added.

"It actually allows us to open up 10 interim beds that we were previously approved for but could not open because we couldn't staff it," Queen said, adding that those beds will take pressure off the Kenora hospital.

The living classroom model has a number of advantages over traditional PSW training programs, Queen added, including that students get to try out the career right away to see if it's suitable for them, employers can see which students are suitable for their work environments and students who can't afford to leave work for a year to go to school can pick up work in the partner facilities while studying.

Confederation College plans to roll the program out in other communities, Madder said, as soon as it has partnerships with service providers.