Alberta government expands New Beginnings Bursary for nursing learners
The Alberta authorities is growing its New Beginnings Bursary for nursing pupils throughout the province.
The bursary was made previous year to give financial aid to lower-revenue learners learning in skilled significant-demand systems these as engineering, laptop or computer science and aircraft upkeep.
The $8.5-million expansion of the application will enable up to 1,700 nursing students with a a person-time, non-repayable $5,000 bursary. Recipients will be preferred from scholar mortgage candidates who meet up with system and economic eligibility standards, according to Highly developed Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides.
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The expansion of the software aims to make post-secondary instruction much more very affordable for nursing college students and assist train nurses to enter Alberta’s wellbeing-treatment sector.
The Alberta governing administration mentioned the bursary as a total will enable around 3,400 reduced-earnings learners in numerous fields by the finish of the 2023-24 academic yr. In all, the governing administration explained it has invested $17 million into the system.
“Every Albertan justifies access to substantial-top quality instruction. Price ought to not be a barrier,” Nicolaides advised reporters on Wednesday.
“Alberta’s authorities is doing work to make certain that all Albertans have the chance to study and prepare for a rewarding profession.”
Wednesday’s announcement will come as Alberta proceeds to test to bring a lot more nurses into the workforce as the well being system struggles to hold up with the need for products and services.
Unions representing overall health experts have said there is a nursing lack in Alberta that amounts to a staffing crisis. At one position throughout labour negotiations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a nurses’ union voiced its disappointment when the province’s well being authority proposed a salary rollback for nurses. A deal was later ratified that noticed nurses get shell out raises.
Nancy Tran, a fourth-yr nursing student at Mount Royal College, reported the New Beginnings Bursary will help simplicity the burden that is on her and her classmates’ shoulders.
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Article-secondary education is expensive, she claimed, and many are doing work a person or two component-time positions to afford to pay for tuition and simple requirements.
“As a student, there are so quite a few points to preserve on prime of both in and out of courses,” Tran mentioned through Wednesday’s information convention.
“Financial supports, this sort of as the New Beginnings Bursary, will alleviate (fiscal strain)… It signifies we can concentration on our training when we really do not have to pressure about revenue.”
Opposition superior education critic David Eggen said the expansion is “pennies on the dollar” since the United Conservative authorities slash funding to publish-secondary instruction.
The UCP’s 2019 finances cut innovative instruction paying by five per cent in contrast to 2018. Funding for post-secondary training will be down 12 for every cent by 2023.
Eggen additional learners are dealing with tuition will increase: most domestic undergraduate pupils at the University of Calgary will see a 5.5 for every cent boost in their tuition service fees following calendar year.
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Nursing college students, even so, will see an 8 for each cent boost.
Nicolaides did not increase on supplemental supports for publish-secondary students, most of whom are not qualified for the province’s affordability payments method.
Nonetheless, he claimed the governing administration is doing the job to uncover methods to offer fiscal guidance for write-up-secondary pupils.
“There are supplemental measures and supplemental supports presently staying explored and reviewed specially for article-secondary learners. We’ll have more in the coming weeks,” the minister mentioned.
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