BarrieToday.com – May 2025:
A new partnership between the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board (SMCDSB) and the County of Simcoe is offering students a unique hands-on learning experience.
Called a “Living Classroom,” the partnership offers local personal support worker (PSW) students a chance to gain both practical skills and theoretical knowledge directly within a long-term care (LTC) environment.
Currently, students participate in the Living Classroom at Trillium Manor, a county-owned LTC facility in Orillia. The school board provides an instructor as well as all necessary materials for students, who attend classes in the home — and will also have the opportunity to complete their full-time clinical placement at Trillium Manor, with the goal of finding work after successfully completing the program.
“We are in our fourth cohort of our PSW program and we have been looking at starting this type of hands on program for close to 20 years,” Brad Shoreman, principal of Our Lady of Hope Catholic Continuing Education School, told BarrieToday. “It’s been happening around the province in school boards for 25-plus years.
“When we finally got our program off the ground, one of the things we had in our minds from the start was to have that critical partner that could put students within long-term care facilities and work in the profession as quickly as possible. We wanted it to be a hands-on learning environment,” Shoreman added.
Early on in that process, he explained, the school board was invited to a meeting about an initiative called The Living Classroom, which seemed to be exactly what they had envisioned.
They applied for the program and were successful in acquiring some funding, he said, adding since launching the Living Classroom initiative at the end of 2024, they have received nothing but positive feedback.
“Everyone who has graduated has at least had a job offer. Some are seeing it as a stepping stone into other aspects of health care to get experience and pay their way through post-secondary education,” he said, adding students come from north of Huntsville and all the way to Tottenham — and everywhere in between.
Students gather once a week in Orillia, giving them an opportunity to observe professionals working first-hand in long-term care.
“They are seeing that it’s real. It takes the textbook learning and puts it in the forefront of hand-on learning right away,” said Shoreman.
The Living Classroom partnership is more than just a training program — it’s an investment in the future of long-term care, said Jane Sinclair, the county’s general manager of health and emergency services.
“This initiative provides a dynamic learning environment where students, guided by SMCDSB instructors and equipped with essential materials, can complete in-person classroom sessions and full-time clinical placements on-site,” she said.
“Through hands-on experience, PSW students work alongside staff, assisting residents with daily activities such as meals, mobility, personal care and bed-making while fostering therapeutic relationships and enriching their education,” Sinclair added.
Beyond education, the inter-generational program also helps connect seniors with youth, and inspires students to explore meaningful and rewarding career opportunities in long-term care, she said.
Students are instructed by a registered nurse, where they have the opportunity to learn to do everything from making beds to assisting with holding modified eating utensils.
Thanks to the partnership with the county, Shoreman said they are already looking at expanding the Living Classroom into other facilities around the region as early as September.
“This type of learning opportunity makes it real, and makes it real very early on,” Shoreman said. “The textbook learning is really important, but it’s nothing compared to seeing what it’s like when you’re looking in someone’s face and helping them. That’s the most important part — making the learning real for them.
“We know we have an aging population and we don’t have people in the jobs. This will help students move into those jobs,” he added. “There’s a lot of opportunities for advancement or to go into different health-care fields, so it’s kind of like a gateway into a long career in health care.”
To view the original article, visit: https://www.barrietoday.com/local-news/living-classroom-provides-gateway-into-health-care-careers-10685550