Certificate II course creates pathway into allied health careers for Pilbara students

Students in Karratha, Roebourne and Port Hedland have been provided a stepping stone into allied and Aboriginal health careers through a pilot pre-traineeship offered in the Pilbara. The program, spearheaded by Community Skills WA and Insight Training, currently has 13 students from Karratha Senior High School, St Luke’s College, Roebourne District High School and Hedland Senior High School participating in a pre-apprenticeship in a Certificate II in Community Health and Wellbeing. Once they have finished the nine units required over two years, students are then able to enrol in a Certificate III in Allied Health. Insight Training manager Samantha McPartland said it was vital to give regional students opportunities within allied health. “It’s an industry that a lot of the students didn’t know about but having spoken with the students, a lot of them wanted to go into nursing or they want to do midwifery,” she said. “One day a week they actually get released from school and they do go out into the workplace and so they are physically out there seeing what it’s all about. “What we’re doing with these students is rotating them through different areas, at the moment we’ve got some working in physiotherapy, we’ve got some at the Karratha Health Campus. “We’ve got them in different places so that they’re getting a chance to experience lots of different ones so they can make a choice as to which direction they want to go into when they go on to do further studies.” Ms McPartland said it was the first time the program was being offered nationwide, with the program expanding Statewide next year.