Health care training facility opens in Okanagan

KELOWNA, B.C.—B.C. students now have better access to health care training thanks to the recently completed Okanagan College’s new Health Sciences Centre.

“If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s how essential health care workers are to our province,” said Adrian Dix, minister of health, in a statement. “We know B.C. needs more health care professionals, and we’re committed to training a new generation of the people who care for us when we need it. Okanagan College’s new Health Sciences Centre is a modern, new facility that will help set both students and our province up for success.”

The centre opened at the Kelowna campus last month. The 2,822-square-metre facility includes labs, classrooms and office space for a wide array of health and social development programs. The learning environments have been equipped with the latest education technology and designed to reflect spaces students will encounter in the modern health care industry.

The building will be utilized by the nearly 600 students training to be dental assistants, health care assistants, pharmacy technicians and more.

“The new Health Sciences Centre at Okanagan College is helping meet the demand for employment growth and the health care services people in the Southern Okanagan and B.C. Interior rely on every day,” said Anne Kang, minister of advanced education and skills training.

The province noted high-tech training spaces are needed as health care workers remain in high demand. The 2019 BC Labour Market Outlook projected 117,100 job openings in health professions by 2029.

“This new facility will provide Okanagan College students with a world-class learning environment that will only further enhance the already outstanding education and training they are receiving at the college,” said Neil Fassina, president of Okanagan College. “We are grateful to the province and to the community donors and industry partners across the region who have stepped to help us open these doors at a time when well-trained health care and social development professionals are needed more than ever.”