For additional information, please view the WorkSafeBC – PCU-WHS Scholarship page on the website at:
https://www.pcu-whs.ca/programs/bdm/worksafebc-pcu-whs-scholarship/
To register an expression of interest or to request an application form, please contact:
Jennifer Murray
Student Services & Records Coordinator
Pacific Coast University for Workplace Health Sciences
4755 Cherry Creek Road
Port Alberni, BC V9Y 0A7
Phone: 778-421-0821, ext. 209
Email: education@pcu-whs.ca
All courses at PCU-WHS are offered online by highly qualified faculty with a depth of multidisciplinary experience.
Students require a computer, an Internet connection (high-speed internet is recommended), and Internet browser software to participate in the courses. Ideally, students will have a computer with a sound card and speakers to listen to course videos and audio. All courses require a word processing application such as Microsoft Word. Individual courses may have additional software requirements. Technical assistance is available for all courses.
The online platform provides you with:
- 24 hour access to course resources and materials.
- More opportunities to directly communicate with faculty.
- Constructive interaction with other students.
- Greater flexibility and convenience in managing your time.
- Courses are not self-paced, however, timelines for course work are provided.
- An environment to participate at a time and place best suited to your needs.
- Additional time to reflect before responding to discussions and other activities.
- An environment where the independent learner flourishes.
The Scholarship program is open to candidates with landed immigrant or Canadian citizenship status who are permanent residents in British Columbia.
Successful candidates:
- Must meet the admission criteria of PCU-WHS.
- Have graduated with a 2-year diploma, degree or other relevant educational prerequisite:
- Current students must be attending a BC post-secondary institution.
- Students converting from an existing career path who have graduated from any university or college.
- Preference will be given to candidates who have accrued a minimum of 60 transferrable academic credits from a recognized post-secondary institution.
- Submit a reflective essay of approximately 1,000 words outlining their reasons for wishing to pursue a career in disability management.
- Be in a position to register as full-time students in the program beginning in September 2020 and to complete the degree within a 2-year period.
- Have access to online facilities and high-speed internet.
- Are required to attend an online orientation to the program in advance of the first academic term.
Candidates with an average post-secondary GPA of 3.0 or higher will be preferred.
Preferred domains of previous study include:
- Human Resources
- Business
- Allied Health
- Mental Health
- Occupational Health Safety
- Health Promotion
- Social Work
- Social Care
- Nursing
Students who have not completed relevant work experience in the field will be required to complete a Level 3 Practicum course, which is outside of the scope of the Scholarship.
Disability Management Professionals work as human resource professionals, workplace health specialists, case managers, return to work coordinators or in a variety of related areas.
Prospective places of employment for Disability Management Professionals include:
- Industrial work sites
- Corporate offices
- Insurance companies
- Service providers
- Human resources departments
- Workers’ compensation organizations
There is an opportunity for experienced professionals to establish their own businesses offering disability management contract services to local employers.
Disability Management Professionals work internally within their own organizations or externally as providers to:
- Develop positive workplace health and job retention policies.
- Promote a positive and proactive workplace health and return to work organizational culture.
- Promote and protect the health and productivity of the workforce.
- Support workers with health conditions to remain at work.
- Assist workers absent on health grounds to safely return to the workplace.
Disability Management Professionals work collaboratively with management, unions or employee organizations, insurance providers, government agencies, health care providers and others.
- Approximately 80 percent of disabling conditions occur during an individual’s working life.
- Disability benefit recipients have less than a one percent chance of exiting the social security benefit system and in to employment.
- This results in dependency and poverty for individuals with disabilities, unsustainable social protection costs, and increasing numbers of disability benefit recipients.
- About 25 percent of all Canadians living in poverty today ─ an estimated 1.2 million individuals ─ are people with disabilities.
- Effective Disability Management programs can make a crucial contribution to reducing poverty in Canada by promoting workplace health, preventing disabilities, and avoiding loss of employment due to a disabling condition.
Disability Management interventions are designed to:
- Reduce the likelihood that workers will acquire an impairment that could place their jobs at risk.
- Engage with workers with disabilities, before they have lost their attachment to their employer, to enhance the likelihood they will retain and return to their jobs.
- Reduce the number of workers exiting the active labour market and entering into the disability benefits system.
Early intervention is at the core of an effective Disability Management approach.
A key success factor in effective Disability Management programs is a consensus-based process based on collaboration between management and worker representatives, often enshrined in a collective agreement, and overseen by a joint management-labour committee.
The WorkSafeBC – PCU-WHS Scholarship program is designed to:
- Significantly increase availability of Disability Management Professionals for both the WorkSafeBC internal workforce as well as other British Columbia employers.
- Support a key public relations strategy to build enhanced recognition of the importance of effective Return to Work programs and the priority of maintaining employment for disabled workers.
- Reduce the unacceptable poverty rate of people with disabilities.
- Improve socio-economic outcomes for disabled workers, employers, and society at large through greater professionalization of those working in the Return to Work / Disability Management field.