More students will be able to apply for seats in healthcare programs at Northwestern Polytechnic starting this fall. This, after the school received just shy of $417,000 from the provincial government to help create more seats in health care programming at the post-secondary institution
In all, the funding will allow the school to accommodate a total of 72 new seats for first-year applicants; with 40 seats in the Collaborative BScN program, 16 for Health Care Aide in Fairview, and 16 in the practical nurse diploma program.
Provost and Vice-President, Academic, Dr. Vanessa Sheane says the money can and will be used towards the overall retention of students in those programs. She adds the demand in the healthcare industry in this part of the province is two-fold.
“We have tremendous demand both on the student side, but also industry and employment demand,” she says.
“It’s exciting to expand these programs and have more students, northern, Indigenous rural students attend these programs here,” she adds.
Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides says the funding will hopefully allow Northwestern Polytechnic to continue to train and educate more nurses and aides.
“This is what Alberta at Work is all about: ensuring we have the workforce to support the labour market and our communities long into the future.”
Dr. Sheane adds they chose to seek healthcare education funding after in-depth data-based research in conjunction with Alberta Health Services.
“For all of our proposals, we worked with Alberta Health Services, both provincially and north zone, and used their data and it’s just strengthened our proposal for the demand that we need for healthcare in the region,” she says.
“We are operating as this is our go-forward point, so as long as the employment demand is there, and the student demand remains, absolutely,” she adds.