Sask. aiming to get high school students hooked on career in healthcare with new course

The “Health Careers 20-L” program gives Saskatchewan students early exposure to opportunities in health care. Donovan Maess reports.

A new high school course is aimed at getting young people in the province hooked on a career in the healthcare sector.

Titled Health Careers 20L, the class gives high school students in Grades 10 through 12 insights into what healthcare professionals do on a daily basis and gives them a footing for future decisions on post-secondary options and career paths.

“The intention of the course is to be able to provide that exposure and provide some information to students so that they know what kind of options that exist out there,” Minister of Education Everett Hindley told reporters Tuesday.

“Our health care system continues to grow, continues to evolve and there’s some really unique opportunities here. I hope it does bode well in terms of providing for opportunities for students.”

• Download the CTV News app to get breaking news alerts sent to your device

The course has been developed in collaboration with the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre (DLC), Virtual Health Hub, Ministry of Health and post-secondary institutions.

Due to the virtual options available through the DLC, Saskatchewan students may take the course from anywhere in the province.

“We’re actually seeing students from all across the province, both rural and urban, including the North,” Sask DLC CEO Darren Gasper said. “We actually have a significant number of urban students. I think the main reason behind that is just the wealth of opportunities that maybe aren’t available in schools.”

“We see lots of opportunity to expand the program into those more specific needs, especially at the Grade 12 level, as kids are getting ready to make that post-secondary choice. We see this as a great opportunity to help them learn about those careers,” he added.

Gasper hopes the program continues to grow to give students hands-on experience outside the classroom.

“We envision things like a future for secondary programs, as students become more familiar with those opportunities and how to access them,” he explained. “In terms of the work placement piece, that’s an ongoing discussion in terms but we certainly want to have those opportunities for kids to experience it firsthand.”

The government says the newly developed course aligns with the Ministry of Health’s Human Resources Action Plan to recruit, train, incentivize and retain health care professionals in Saskatchewan.

It hopes Health Careers 20L is a leaping off point for young people to get interested in a career in health care and, long-term, keeps health care workers from Saskatchewan working in the province.

“In hard to recruit professions, it’s about making sure that we have those seats within the province,” minister of health Jeremy Cockrill added. “And then after kids are done, those programs ensure we have the right incentive programs so stay in Saskatchewan.”

“Maybe they take a position in one of our health care facilities and even better, if it’s in one of our rural or northern communities as well,” he said.

“I look forward to the day when we can look back and see someone who’s applied for and been given a job in a health care field here in Saskatchewan, and they can look back and say, ‘How I ended up here today was by getting signed up for the Health Careers 20 course,’” said Hindley.

Health Careers 20L is available through Sask DLC to all students in Grades 10-12, no matter where they live in the province, beginning in the 2026-27 school year.

As a locally developed course supported by the Ministry of Education, school divisions also have the option to offer Health Careers 20L to students in their schools, further supporting access to the course.

To learn more about Health Careers 20L and other Sask DLC courses available for the 2026-27 school year, or to register, go to saskDLC.ca.