JAMAICANS will soon have the opportunity to, in one go, secure an education and employment overseas, thanks to a residential care programme on offer at Brown’s Town Community College, in collaboration with Sprott-Shaw College out of Canada.

“The programme is for training and placement. What we are actually doing is training people for the Canadian market. They are not going to be trained for the local market. It is a kind of overseas work programme once removed,” principal of the Brown’s Town Community College James Walsh told Career & Education. “The idea is that they are going to Canada not to look a job, but to do a job.”

The Ministry of Labour is also a partner in the venture.

“(According to) the agreement we have signed, they will help with the processing of the applicants and the placement in Canada,” Walsh noted. “When people apply and they do the test, we will send their information to the Ministry of Labour. To benefit from this programme, they must have a clean police record and they must meet the health requirements in terms of the immunisation and so on.”

Teaching is to begin at the St Ann institution next month, with recruitment now under way. The programme will run over six months, four of which will be spent in the classroom while the other two will see students in practicum at infirmaries and nursing homes.

The course curriculum will be provided by Sprott-Shaw College, which will later administer the exams, Walsh said.

Sprott-Shaw College is a subsidiary of the CIBT Education Group Inc, an education management and investment company with a special focus on the global education market.

The other subsidiaries of the group include CIBT School of Business & Technology Corp, Tourism Training Institute, Concordia Career College, and Modus International Language College. Together with Sprott-Shaw Degree College Corp, they possess a combined operating history of more than 100 years in China and Canada’s education sectors.

“We are hoping to have a cohort of 50. If we don’t get more than say 35 I don’t think we will proceed. We will not, however, be going over 50; we wouldn’t want that for the pilot phase,” the Brown’s Town Community College principal said. “The plan is to recruit cohorts of 50 every three months after. So we will always have two going – one halfway through and then we want to start the other one.”

The course, meanwhile, will cost students between an estimated CA$7,000 and CA$8,000.

“The fee is broken into two components – one paid here in Jamaica (CA$2,500 to CA$2,750). The rest of the fee (CA$5,000) will be paid once they are placed in a job in Canada or elsewhere in North America. That fee they will pay from salary deductions over a 30-month period,” Walsh said. “If they are not successful in going to Canada and getting a job, they will not have to pay the $5,000.”

The Brown’s Town Community College was quick to urge prospective students not to be daunted by the cost of the programme.

“The partner institution will really only realise the bulk of its income if the students succeed in being placed in a job. If they get a suitable job and don’t accept it, then that is different, they have to pay. But if they are not successful in the exam, then they don’t have to pay,” he told Career & Education, adding that students will have up to three opportunities to sit the exam before they will be required to resit the entire course.

At the same time, he said that they were currently in discussions with a financial institution to make loans available to students.

“We are in discussions with First Regional Cooperative Credit Union to see if they can help with funding,” Walsh said.

Four months into the course, Professor Michael Patterson’s consultancy firm. is to bring a group of potential employers of residential care attendants to the island to interview students.

“They (recruiters) will interview the applicants. On successful completion of the course, the idea will be that they (students) will then be recruited by the same people on whatever terms worked out between them and the consultant,” Walsh said.

The Brown’s Town principal said, in the interim, that there was no question of the value of the venture to students, while admitting that his institution had long been looking to forge similar partnerships.

“We are interested in many things. We have been looking at being a part of overseas training programmes for some time… and frankly we are also trying to make money for the college,” he said.

Brown’s Town Community College has been in operation since 1975 and was set up to help students prepare for advanced level courses. It also offers upgrading, technical and vocational and professional courses.

The college operates three campuses – the main one at the old Servite Convent just outside of Brown’s Town. The other campuses are located at St Ann’s Bay (Wesley Campus) and at the old Kaiser administrative offices in Bridgewater, Discovery Bay.