Feature: Loyalist College and Local Agency Fast Track Training for Personal Support Workers
Published June 17, 2026 on oncat.ca
Canada’s population is rapidly aging. Currently, around 19.5% of all Canadians, or 8.1 million, are aged 65 or older. That’s twice the aging population globally. The need for certified personal support workers (PSWs) in Ontario and the country has never been stronger, but many workers who aspire to become PSWs lack the flexibility or time to pursue a one-year, full-time credential. At the same time, many colleges lack the capacity to build a shortened and flexible program for workers already employed in the field. As a result of an innovative project led by Loyalist College, home support workers now have an option to earn a PSW certificate in a way that saves them time and money.
To accelerate the development of this project, ONCAT awarded $75,000 to Loyalist College via an ONCAT Capacity Grant — a funding program that supports the development and implementation of learner-centric policies, practices and pathways at publicly assisted postsecondary institutions in Ontario. ONCAT is funded by the Government of Ontario.
Through a process called prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR), Ontario colleges can offer learners the opportunity to earn credit for formal demonstration of prior learning acquired through work experiences. Usually, learners are required to collect and submit exhaustive materials that demonstrate how their work experience meets learning objectives for a particular course or set of courses.
To help address this problem, Loyalist College and ParaMed partnered to create an employer-based pathway to PSW certification. ParaMed offers valuable onboarding and training to home support workers that covers a significant portion of Loyalist’s PSW program. Via PLAR, students can demonstrate their learning and earn credits. The burden of the application is removed from learners and the PLAR evaluation process is much faster.
“This project demonstrates how recognizing prior learning can create more efficient pathways for learners while also informing program innovation. The adaptations we made for this cohort are now enhancing our mainstream PSW delivery,” says Neil Kerby, Associate Dean of the Centre for Leadership, Learning and Academic Excellence at Loyalist College. “Another exciting part of this project was that by accelerating the pathway to PSW certification, this initiative is directly contributing to addressing workforce shortages and supporting the delivery of care in communities across Ontario” he continues.
With funding from ONCAT, Loyalist convened a team of subject matter experts and a teaching and learning specialist to review ParaMed’s training and map the learning objectives and competencies onto Loyalist’s PSW certificate program. This exercise allowed the project team to identify which PSW courses are eligible for PLAR credit, which courses students need to complete and what learning gaps they need to address to fulfill the program requirements. To ensure that workers can access the program, they then developed a fully online, asynchronous program that can be completed in three months, compared to eight months in the conventional PSW program.
To further incentivize workers to obtain this credential, ParaMed covers the cost of tuition for eligible workers. Katarina Busija, Chief Nursing Executive at ParaMed, comments, “When we expand access to PSW certification, we expand access to care for the clients, families and communities across Ontario who count on home care. By partnering with Loyalist to formally recognize the skills our home support workers already bring to the job, we're opening a faster, more accessible pathway for PSW certification — and helping more care professionals reach the clients who need them."
The project has had significant uptake by students. Since the program launched in fall 2024, 259 students have already graduated with a PSW certificate. An additional 50 students are currently enrolled in the spring 2026 semester. A recent graduate of the program says, “This program has helped me feel more confident in my skills and knowledge as a PSW and of course will better help me to serve the people in need of care.”
Loyalist will continue offering the PSW pathway for eligible ParaMed employees for the foreseeable future. At ONCAT’s 2026 conference, the team offered a full-day workshop to support faculty and staff at other colleges to design and implement a similar pathway. To learn more about the program, contact Barry Weese, Dean, Leadership, Learning and Academic Excellence.
