Feds and N.W.T. gov't invest in personal support worker education

The federal and N.W.T. governments have agreed to invest $5.3 million into personal support workers in the territory over the span of five years — including $3.2 million to Aurora College to expand a program that trains them. 

The college's 10-month personal support worker program prepares graduates to work in places like long-term care facilities, hospitals, community agencies and private homes. It said in a news release Tuesday that the program has been offered full-time in Yellowknife since 2008. 

Jodi Brennan, chair of the college's School of Health and Human Services, said the funding agreement will allow it to have 20 students in what it calls its "distance" version of the program — which students from any N.W.T. community can do — for the next four years.

The college said the funding also allows it to offer a version of the program that is in-person part-time at its campuses in Inuvik and Fort Smith. 

"The benefits of that are, I would say, tied to experiential components primarily," said Brennan. 

The release from Aurora College said that the funding allows it to educate more personal support workers "at a time when they are critically needed." 

"Increasing the number of personal support workers will strengthen the northern health-care workforce and safeguard the quality of care for vulnerable populations," the release reads. 

The funding stems from an amendment to the N.W.T. and federal government's Aging with Dignity bilateral agreement announced in 2023. The other chunk of the money is being used to hire personal support worker educators within each health and social services authority.