Barry Hengel, the new general manager at Mariposa Gardens in Osoyoos, says the working relationship between Sprott Shaw College and the residential care facility has been very positive and continues to flourish. Mariposa has helped produce and hire numerous graduates from the Health Care Assistant program offered at the college for the past several years. (Keith Lacey photo)
If you’re looking for a rewarding career in health care, better-than-average pay and job opportunities, Sprott Shaw College and Mariposa Gardens in Osoyoos want to hear from you.
For the past several years, the Sprott Shaw College campus in Penticton has been offering a 29-week Health Care Assistant (HCA) certificate along.
In a joint program with Mariposa Gardens, students in the HCA program are allowed to spend 20 of those weeks studying at the local residential care facility in Osoyoos.
“Since Mariposa opened back in 2008, we have been supplying the majority of health care assistants to that facility,” said Darla Lamberty, career adviser at Sprott Shaw College, a private Canadian career training institution, headquartered in British Columbia.
When Mariposa opened seven years ago, 20 of the 24 HCA students hired were graduates of Sprott Shaw College and close to 20 of them are still working there to the best of her knowledge, said Lamberty.
Barry Hengel, the new general manager at Mariposa Gardens, says the working relationship between Sprott Shaw College and the residential care facility has been very positive and continues to flourish.
Many people complain about the lack of good jobs in many parts of the South Okanagan, but many of them don’t know about the great career opportunities available at Mariposa Gardens, especially for HCA graduates, said Hengel.
“The bottom line is we’re always hiring,” he said. “We have a lot of great staff here who do a lot of great things, but I would have to say that 70 or 80 per cent of the success we enjoy at this facility is due to the great health care aide workers we have employed here.
“These are the people who work every single day, from morning to night, with our residents. They help them with everything from getting dressed, cleaning, shaving, helping them change their clothes to feeding them … basically taking care of their everyday needs. We wouldn’t be the great facility we are without our health care aide workers.”
The starting wage for a HCA graduate is close to $20 an hour and Mariposa has hired hundreds of Sprott Shaw College graduates over the past seven years, Hengel confirmed.
Teachers from Sprott Shaw teach students on-site at Mariposa Gardens for 20 weeks out of the 29-week program.
The HCA diploma program has been one of the most popular at the college for the past 20 years and the placement rate of graduates is over 90 per cent, said Lamberty.
Mariposa Gardens has hired numerous graduates over the past decade, but numerous other senior and residential care facilities across the South Okanagan also regularly hire graduates, she said.
“More than 55 per cent of the population in Penticton, Oliver and Osoyoos is over age 60,” she said. “The need for HCA graduates is only going to get stronger as we move forward.”
Students range from 18 years of age to some in their 50s who have been downsized from previous jobs and are looking for a new challenge, said Lamberty.
The only academic requirement to take the HCA diploma program is Grade 10 English, she said.
Hengel said everyone is different, but most successful HCA employees share common traits.
“You have to be dedicated and passionate about helping people,” he said. “Everything we do here at Mariposa is about the residents, so the more you can focus on them and doing what it takes to make them comfortable and happy, the better you will do at this job.
“You also have to have patience because you’re dealing with people who are in the latter years of their life and they want things done a certain way. I would say more than 90 per cent of our employees love what they do and … there are very few who are here just to collect a paycheque.”
Many people might be shocked to know that Mariposa Gardens is the largest employer in Osoyoos with more than 150 full-time employees on the payroll, with the vast majority of them being health care aide workers, said Hengel.
“At last count, I think we had 80 on the payroll,” he said.
Sprott Shaw College does a wonderful job of teaching and training the HCA students and Hengel has no doubt the working relationship between Mariposa Gardens and the college will continue for many years to come.
“There aren’t many programs around where you can get training for seven months and almost be guaranteed a job with a very competitive starting wage,” he said. “We see a lot of people in their 30s and 40s and 50s who make a career change and want to get into the health care field.
“They have to work hard because this course isn’t cheap, but if you buckle down and do well and graduate, your chances of becoming employed with a very good starting wage is very strong.”
Hengel said the entire staff at Mariposa Gardens are committed to excellence and that’s why he enjoys his job so much.
Anyone who might be interested in the HCA program at Sprott Shaw College can contact Lamberty at 1-250-770-2277 or send an email to [email protected].
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
