BCCPA’s report, published during Apprenticeship Recognition Month, emphasizes the need for more health care apprenticeships in the province.
November 18, 2019 (Burnaby, B.C.) – Apprenticeships are commonly used for many trades and skilled occupations in Canada. However, a new report by BC Care Providers Association (BCCPA) proposes that apprenticeships are still an untapped opportunity for employers struggling to fill positions for frontline workers in the seniors’ care sector.
BCCPA’s report, titled Apprenticeships: A new pathway to careers in care, provides a comprehensive jurisdictional overview of the development of apprenticeship programs in health care worldwide, and shows that Canada comes up short when it comes to using apprenticeships to grow the healthcare workforce.
The report also addresses how apprenticeships programs can promote gender equity. Women are underrepresented in trades across Canada—a trend that continues in apprenticeships. Only 14% of apprentices in B.C. are women, with the highest registration rates in cook and hairstylist programs. An influx of health care apprenticeships from healthcare can help address the imbalance.
“This report is the latest in a series of innovative approaches proposed by our association to tackle the health human resources crisis gripping B.C.’s seniors’ care sector,” says BCCPA CEO Daniel Fontaine. “We have scanned other jurisdictions to seek out best practices for apprenticeships in the UK, Australia, the EU and in the USA. We concluded that investing in apprenticeships can lead to better employment outcomes, and create promising pathways for health care assistants who will be ready to join the workforce.”
Thanks to demographics, seniors’ care is a booming part of Canada’s economy. Labour market forecasts predict that within a decade, there will be nearly 20,000 job openings for health care assistants in B.C. alone. But in spite of the anticipated growth, apprenticeship opportunities are rare for healthcare workers in our province.
In B.C., apprenticeship programs in fields like construction and carpentry offer a combination of classroom and on-the-job training before certification. Over 100 trades offer apprenticeship programs that are open to anyone including new immigrants, youth and Indigenous people.
While the bulk of apprenticeships today in B.C. are in skilled trades, the model can be successfully adapted to the continuing care sector.
The only pathway currently in place toward becoming a registered health care assistant is completing a seven-month training program in one of B.C.’s certified career colleges. However, enrollment numbers in HCA programs are dropping, this is despite significant new investments made by the provincial government to expand the number of training seats.
High tuition costs are a deemed to be a major reason for the decline in enrollment rates—a seven-month HCA program at a career college can cost anywhere between $3,500 to $11,000.
“Our apprenticeships report proposes that care providers could partner with career colleges to offer a combination of on-site training as well as theoretical learning,” says Fontaine. “The programs would include compensation for the apprentices for on-the-job training hours to ease the financial burden of students.
“Apprenticeships programs would allow operators to fill vacant positions in their organization with trained care aides who are fully integrated into their care team, which would promote continuity of care.”
Since 2018, BCCPA has undertaken multiple measures to analyze and resolve B.C.’s health human resources (HHR) crisis. These include hosting an sector-wide collaborative with care providers, government, labour unions and training colleges; issuing two reports outlining the scale of the crisis and providing 10 recommendations on how to resolve it; establishing a $25,000 HCA bursary program in partnership with Okanagan College, and; partnering with Health Match BC to design their new Choose 2 Care recruitment campaign.
Last week, Hon. Adrian Dix, B.C.’s Minister of Health, announced bold reforms to the BC Care Aide and Community Health Worker Registry – long advocated for by BCCPA – which will streamline the process for out-of-province workers to find employment as health care assistants in B.C.
“While we’re excited to see new pathways open for out-of-province workers, we need to do more to attract new workers to our sector,” says Fontaine. “We know that apprenticeships can go a long way toward boosting recruitment, and address financial challenges that prevent excellent job candidates from pursuing rewarding careers in seniors’ care.”
Apprenticeships: A new pathway to careers in care was authored by Marcus Lo through a student co-op program in partnership with BCCPA. A full copy of the paper is available at bccare.ca.
-30-
MEDIA CONTACT:
Rumana D’Souza
(778) 681-4859
rumana@bccare.ca
About BC Care Providers Association
Established in 1977, BC Care Providers Association (BCCPA) is the leading voice for B.C.’s continuing care sector. Our growing membership base includes over 340 long-term care, assisted living, home care, home support, and commercial members from across British Columbia.
