Having left home at the age of 13, Keely Weymouth didn’t think she’d have the opportunity to take her education to the next level, but thanks to some timely funding, she’ll get the opportunity to do just that.

The Ministry of Advanced Education has dolled out a one-time cash injection of $141,000 to the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT) so it can offer its health-care assistant program this year to 15 students.

NVIT president Ken Tourand said this program would not have been offered without this government funding.

“We had 12 or 13 [students] that were on wait list hoping that we were going to be able to deliver [the program],” Tourand said. “Now that the funding has come through, that program is a go, so we’ve informed those students.”

Weymouth, 19, said she wasn’t aware there was a chance the program might not have gotten off the ground, but is glad the funding came through.

“I know a lot of people who are wanting to take it,” she said.

So far, 13 students have signed up to take the 35-week program.

Weymouth knew she wanted to join the health-care assistant program and find work as a care aid — her goal to work toward becoming a registered nurse.

Minister of Advaced Education Andrew Wilkinson said the ministry wants to invest in people improving their skills “so they have the opportunities to build up their lives.”

“We want to encourage people to build on those dreams,” Wilkinson said.

The health care assistant program trains students to work in care facilities for the elderly, like Gillis House, with a practicum at such local facilities.

“They learn everything from blood pressure readings and how to lift elderly people out of their beds [to] wheel chair operation,” Tourand said.

The funding will enable the program to train health-care students locally and place them in the workforce locally as well.

“Those people will be employed starting next summer in long-term care facilities, and hospitals and the like,” Wilkinsion told reporters at NVIT during a funding announcement Thursday (Sept. 3).

“It’s important for us to have people who are in demand locally to be trained locally and that’s exactly what we are doing here,” he said.

Wemouth has lived in Merritt for nearly 10 years, and said she’d like to continue living here. She hopes to find a job at Gillis House.

There is a demand for health-care assistants both in the Nicola Valley and the province as a whole, Wilkinson said.

Minister of Advaced Education Andrew Wilkinson announces $141,000 in funding for NVIT's health care assistants program on Thursday, Sept. 8 in Merritt.

Minister of Advaced Education Andrew Wilkinson announces $141,000 in funding for NVIT’s health care assistants program on Thursday, Sept. 3 in Merritt.

“The demand for health-care assistants to provide the services to people in care facilities, and hospitals and elsewhere is growing at four per cent per year in the province, and in the Thompson-Okanagan region it’s growing at five per cent per year,” he said.

The projected demand suggests the need to provide more health-care assistants in the province.

“What we did was we ran a competition in the ministry for grants, which would provide training programs for health-care assistants,” Wilkinson said, adding that the criteria was  the level of demand in a community and whether or not the advanced education ministry wanted to satisfy the demand soon.

NVIT was one of the successful applicants that competed for funding after answering a call for proposals from the ministry.