32 additional seats for NWCC health care assistant training in Northwest and Haida Gwaii

On Wednesday, the Province of British Columbia introduced plans for 3.3 million dollars in funding for post secondary training in health care assistant programs across the province and for its share of that funding, Northwest Community College will gain access to 32 additional seats for their programs on Haida Gwaii and in the Northwest.

Those thirty two seats will be split between the Islands and the rest of the NWCC service region, with sixteen dedicated for Haida Gwaii and the remaining 16 for regional use by the college.

The total value of the funding for all 32 seats comes to 320,000 dollars.

So far, NWCC has not indicated how they plan to allocate the second grouping of seats for their program.

Melanie Mark, the Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training outlined the scope of the provinces plan to expand the training opportunities in the province.


“Expanding the number of health-care assistant seats helps to make sure our families and loved ones get the care they need where they need it — close to home,”   ... “Health-care assistants are in demand throughout the province, and expanding the number of seats gives people the opportunity to enter into a rewarding career that will help their families and communities thrive.”

According to yesterdays information release, funding for the programs which are approximately six to ten months in length will see the new seats available by December of 2019.

More background on the announcement including the full list of which post secondary institutions will receive the funding can be reviewed here.

Smithers is currently hosting an Enhanced Health Care Assistant  program this Spring which started April 3rd and will continue through until December 21st.

The current intake for students for the Health Care Assistant program will see the Masset program set for September of this year, while Terrace will host the program in January of 2019.

You can find out more about the Health Care Assistant program at Northwest Community College from the College website here.

Further notes on post secondary education in the Northwest can be found our archive page.


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