Grand Falls paramedics program suspended because of low enrolment
Only 6 students registered for satellite program this year
The paramedic training program at the community college in Grand Falls has been suspended for one year because of low enrolment.
The program has the capacity for 24 students.
The minimum registration needed for the satellite classes is about 10 students, but only six applied for admission in September.
Sylvio Boudreau, the vice-president of the college, said the cost, when broken down by student, is too high to justify running the program in Grand Falls this year.
"If you have six or 20 people it costs the same thing," he said.
Students who applied to the program in Grand Falls will be offered seats at the Campbellton campus, where the program is taught every year.
Students who take the course in other parts of the province actually participate in video-conference satellite classes, but staff are still needed in those locations to facilitate the technology.
Boudreau said almost 50 students across the province are training to be paramedics at the community college, with 34 in Campbellton and 12 in Grand Falls. That cohort will graduate in February 2020, he said.
The college typically rotates the location of the satellite classes every two years.
"It depends where we have the demand," Boudreau said.
The college doesn't know why interest in the program was so low this year, but plans to examine what it can do to improve and promote the program to fill all available paramedic training seats.
Boudreau suspects it could be the population isn't large enough for overlapping satellite cohorts.
"We know there's a job and it's well paid."
Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Trevor Holder told reporters at the legislature Wednesday that his department will work with CCNB to find out what the issue is that's causing low enrolment.
"Maybe it's just lack of promotion of the program, If that's it, that could be a simple fix going forward."
Holder also said it is important to note the program has not been cancelled but just suspended for one year.
With files from Radio-Canada