(Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

By CKOM News Staff

Province adds more than 550 new training spots for health careers

Jan 31, 2023 | 1:55 PM

In its latest effort to address the shortage of health-care workers in Saskatchewan, the provincial government is funding the creation of hundreds of new post-secondary training seats across 18 different health-care programs.

The initial $5.5-million investment comes as part of the province’s Health Human Resources Action Plan, which is intended to add 1,000 new people to Saskatchewan’s health-care workforce.

The new funding will create more than 550 new training positions, the provincial government said, including spaces at Saskatchewan’s post-secondary institutions as well as reserved seats for Saskatchewan students in specialized programs taught in other provinces.

The new funding will allow a number of training programs to expand this fall, the government said, including those offering education for medical lab assistants, continuing care assistants, primary care paramedics, licensed practical nurses, pharmacy technicians, clinical psychologists, physical therapists, and mental health and addictions counsellors.

Some of the out-of-province programs where additional seats will be reserved for Saskatchewan students include respiratory therapy, magnetic resonance imaging technology, diagnostic medical sonography, occupational therapy, electro-neurophysiology, and cardiovascular perfusion.

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“For the first time,” the government noted, “seats will also be reserved for Saskatchewan students in Speech Language Pathology and Environmental Public Health.”

Gordon Wyant, Saskatchewan’s advanced education minister, said Tuesday’s announcement opens up more health career options for students in Saskatchewan and improves access to training in many necessary fields.

“The scale of this unprecedented expansion of Saskatchewan’s health training capacity demonstrates our government’s commitment to strengthening our health-care workforce,” Wyant added in a statement.

A new public awareness campaign will also be launched to help make Saskatchewan students more aware of the expanded opportunities and available financial support, the government added.