Seven Generations Education Institute (SGEI) is making it easier for students interested in the health and medical fields to make their first steps toward a dream career.
Beginning in fall 2022, SGEI is offering its Emergency Services Fundamentals (EMSF) program that will give prospective or pre-med students a leg up and better prepare them for the program of their choice. The one-year, two-semester EMSF program is designed to help students learn more about the medical fields by providing instructions on communications, mathematics, science, addictions and mental health, ethics and “other relevant topics” to help get them ready for a subsequent certificate or diploma program.
Malcolm Daley, the EMSF program coordinator for the Fort Frances Campus, said that the EMSF is designed to help students see if health is a good fit for them, as well as to help them along their path if they decide they’re in it for the long run.
“It’s pre-health for paramedics,” he explained.
“So it gets you all your prerequisites plus it gives you, basically, a leg up by giving you four transfer credits. You take the one-year Emergency Services Fundamentals, graduate in the coming spring, and then you go right into the paramedic program and you get to drop four classes.”
Daley explained that one of the benefits of the EMSF program is that it adds on a year of study in a way that’s beneficial to students, especially those attending a post-secondary institute for the first time.
“A lot of people, and our students are no exception, don’t know how to be in college,” he said.
“Whether you’re right out of high school, or you have been away from college, any little bit of prep is good. That’s why pre-health programs really are helpful in any of the health care fields if you can take one. It just gives you a year of study, getting up going to class, and lower stakes than when you get into your program of choice.”
The EMSF program is being presented as an option for anyone who wants to be a paramedic or practical nurse, Daley said, both programs that are available at SGEI and both of which benefit in the same way from the pre-health program. The Institute’s website also says the pre-health program could be a stepping stone for other programs like Pre-Service Firefighter Education and Training, Protection, Security and Investigation or 911 Emergency and Call Centre Communications.
SGEI is working to fill local gaps in the healthcare field. As more paramedics and nurses reach retirement age, and more positions become available through additional funding, the EMSF program can help to bolster local numbers by providing easier access to other in-demand fields.
“Right now we have a huge void in healthcare in communities all throughout the North, and I think provincially as well,” Daley said.
“In a large part, that’s why Seven Generations is pushing [these programs]. We’re doing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing every two years, we’re doing Practical Nursing every year, we’re doing PSW every year. I would easily support a paramedic program every year if we had the students to support it, and the jobs would be there for at least the foreseeable future. There are jobs to be had and money to be made for people. We used to get by on people who would graduate in Niagara or Toronto and they couldn’t get jobs there because of how competitive it was. People down south would go get a kinesiology degree to prepare for being a paramedic, which is not needed at all, but now you’re against that person for one job, so we used to get people because we had jobs. That’s not enough anymore because there’s work everywhere.”
For anyone interested in checking out a career in health and medicine, the Emergency Services Fundamentals program at Seven Generations Education Institute might be exactly what you need to get your foot in the door for your future dream career. To learn more about the program, contact Daley at malcolmd@7generations.org, or visit SGEI’s website at www.7generations.org/programs/emergency-services-fundamentals/.
