Coleg Ceredigion visit Alberta, Canada
Staff and learners from Coleg Ceredigion have partnered with norQuest College in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) to work on a model of delivery for Health & Social Care courses. The aim of the visit was to increase recruitment and retention of health and social care professionals in rural parts of Wales. The visit provided an opportunity to compare the challenges in delivering care services in rural and remote areas in Wales and Alberta. The experience allowed the participants to gain a new perspective of care practices, and explore new ways to improve the overall well-being of the population in rural areas of Wales. Sara Jones, Lecturer in Health Science, and Jennifer Glenc, course coordinator for Access to Higher Education Diploma in Health Sciences, from Coleg Ceredigion tells us more about the experience.
The main aim and objective of this mobility was to provide our students with an experience of an international healthcare model which is different to how we operate in Wales. We wanted to inspire innovation and improve future service delivery, especially in remote regions. We also wanted to broaden student perspectives of healthcare practices internationally by comparing them with our approaches to rural health care, and based on that learning, to develop a new educational model for delivering health and social care training.
We found that the health service in Alberta has almost the same challenges as the NHS in Wales. However, they don’t have a problem recruiting students, so we were also looking at what are they doing to see if we could bring some lessons back to Wales.
Our next step to continue this learning journey is to establish the Academy of Rural Health and Social Care at Coleg Ceredigion to support the recruitment in post-16 health and social care. Successful applicants to the Academy will investigate and experience the challenges facing rural and remote health and social care services here in rural mid-Wales and in Alberta. It will be an opportunity to expand learner perspectives of wider health and social care practices and challenges, whilst also looking to improve workforce retention and address the recruitment crisis in NHS Wales by inspiring our students to pursue careers in healthcare, especially in rural areas.
It was great to realise that actually there was learning from both sides. This wasn’t just us going there and bringing back new ideas to Wales. Our Canadian partners were learning from our model when they came over here as well. It was wonderful looking at our models of healthcare and our educational system through this international opportunity.
In Canada, they have incredible technology that allows them to reach people who live in a vast area through what they call a high-flex learning environment. They can reach populations in remote and rural areas and can teach subjects online. This provides them with a large amount of students, that generates large amounts of revenue – a virtuous circle. And the retention rate of students just simply increases exactly because students are given a choice on how they want to learn.
On the other hand, the Canadians were quite impressed when they came over on the reciprocal visit with the Welsh language legislation we have. They don’t have a similar arrangement for their indigenous communities. It’s not legislated that they have to provide care through Cree or other local First Nations languages.
We knew that for many participants, this experience would be life transforming. One of the many positive outcomes of the mobility is the cultural awareness they have gained. We noticed an increased awareness and appreciation for cultural differences, after being immersed in different indigenous cultures in Canada. This made them also reflect on their own identity and sense of Welshness. Sometimes our learners still have not developed that level of resilience that allows you to emotionally regulate yourself.
When you are overseas, you are out of your comfort zone. And you have no choice but to develop that personal autonomy and emotional regulation. This experience has definitely strengthened them. After the trip, it was evident that the learners had higher resiliency levels and a stronger voice – they were able to handle criticism better. We could see a huge difference in all of them.
An international mobility gives students different opportunities that enhance their development and can have a direct impact on their career prospects. Some of our students are the verge of making a university application, but some still weren’t sure whether a career in health care was for them. But the Canadian experience cemented it for some of them. They realised that’s what they wanted to do. They wanted to work in healthcare.
For the lecturers, being exposed to international healthcare models has given us a new perspective and also an appreciation for what we have here. Also, the whole experience has been so valuable that we hope to continue working in partnership with Canada to provide further opportunities for new cohorts of learners.
