Learn via live instructor-led virtual lectures completed online, anywhere in Ontario.
Do you enjoy caring for others and want to put your compassion to work? The Personal Support Worker (PSW) program has been developed to provide standardized training and an educational base for workers who provide long-term care and support services in both institutional and community settings. At the conclusion of the program, students will write the National Association of Career Colleges (NACC) exam to become certified PSWs.
The majority of this program is online instructor-led studies paired with some on-the-job training through placements at a variety of care facilities.
Main Duties
Visiting Personal Support Worker perform some or all of the following duties:
- Care for individuals and families during periods of incapacitation, convalescence or family disruption
- Administer bedside and personal care to clients such as aid in ambulation, bathing, personal hygiene, and dressing and undressing
- Plan and prepare meals and special diets, and feed or assist in feeding clients
- Demonstrate infant care to new parents
- May perform routine health-related duties such as changing non-sterile dressings, administering medications and collecting specimens under the general direction of home care agency supervisor or nurse
- May perform routine housekeeping duties such as laundry, washing dishes and making beds.
Career College Versus Public Community College
What is different about attending a Career College like Gates College versus Public Community Colleges like Fleming College, Confederation College, Sault College or Durham College?
Gates College is registered as an Ontario Career College and programs are approved as vocational programs under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005 and follow the several amendments included in the Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act, 2023 (Effective, January 1, 2024*). Public Community Colleges such as Fleming College, Confederation College, Sault College and Durham College operate under a separate branch. There are benefits you may experience when attending an Ontario Career College like Gates College, that the Public Community Colleges may not offer.
For example:
- Small Class Sizes
- One course at a time Modular Based Learning
- Fixed Block Schedules
- Frequent Start Dates
- This program is currently being delivered in an Instructor-led online environment
A Gates College student will find that our Campuses and our Online experience is very student-focused and always puts the student’s goals first!
Program Outline
Gates College Students enrolled in this program will receive:
- National Association of Career Colleges (NACC) curriculum that maps to the Ontario provincial-approved training standard.
- Clinical work placement in a community and long-term care facility for a total of 310hrs.
- CPR (HCP–Healthcare Provider Level / BLS-Basic Life Support)/First Aid
- Uniform 2 sets of scrubs
Career opportunities include, but are not limited to:
- Home care
- Hospitals
- Palliative care
- Long term care
- Retirement homes
- Assisted Living Facilities
- Adult day programs
