College Certificate - Personal Support Worker

The Personal Support Worker certificate is a one-year program with placement, training front-line care providers for long-term care, home care and community settings.

Content covers personal care and activities of daily living, safe transfers, positioning and mobility assistance, infection prevention and control, nutrition and assisted feeding, cognitive impairment and dementia care, palliative and end-of-life support, mental health awareness, abuse recognition and reporting obligations, documentation, and communication with clients, families and care teams. Placements run in long-term care homes and community care settings.

This is the fastest route into Canadian healthcare employment, and demand in Ontario long-term care and home care is severe. It is also physically and emotionally demanding work with modest pay — students should be clear about that before enrolling. Many use it as an entry point and bridge into practical nursing afterwards.

Clinical placement is a mandatory, graded component. Placements require immunisation records, a police vulnerable sector check, CPR certification and mask fit testing — students who cannot complete these cannot progress, so arrange them early.

Humber Polytechnic — formerly Humber College — is Ontario’s largest public college and a Designated Learning Institution (DLI O19376943122). The North campus in Etobicoke is its main site, running technology, engineering, health science, business and skilled trades programs in purpose-built labs and shops rather than lecture halls, with three intakes a year and the deepest employer network in the Greater Toronto Area.

Its field maps to CIP 51.2602 (Home health aide/personal care aide). Important: this is a college credential rather than a degree, so it is not exempt from the November 2024 PGWP field-of-study restriction — eligibility depends on this CIP field appearing on IRCC’s eligible list when you apply. Humber publishes a PGWP-eligible program list with CIP codes; check it, and confirm with an Apply Study Visa counsellor before committing. IRCC makes the final decision.