Health Care Assistant with Co-op Diploma Program

Graduates of the HCA with Co-op diploma are prepared for the same full spectrum of front-line caregiving roles as the standard HCA program — with one powerful addition: the co-op placement often becomes a student’s first employer, turning supervised work experience directly into a job offer. Career opportunities include:

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  Care Aide — Complex / Long-Term Care
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  Care Aide — Dementia / Memory Care Unit
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  Care Aide — Multi-Level Care Facility
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  Home Support Worker
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  Community Health Worker
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  Assisted Living Worker
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  Group Home Worker
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  Acute Care Aide (Hospital Setting)
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  Palliative / Hospice Care Aide
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  Mental Health Support Worker (Care Aide)

HCA Co-op graduates work in the same range of B.C. care settings as standard HCA graduates — but with the added depth of having already spent 24 weeks working inside one of those environments before they graduate. Co-op placements introduce students to the real rhythms, teams, and professional expectations of health care work well before their first day of paid employment.

Long-Term Care & Complex Care Facilities: The most common co-op and employment setting for HCA graduates in the Victoria region — residential care homes, complex care facilities, and dementia care units operated by Island Health, private care societies, and independent operators across Greater Victoria and Vancouver Island. Students completing their co-op in these settings gain experience with the full scope of resident care, shift-based work, and multidisciplinary team collaboration.

Home Support & Community Care: Co-op placements in home support agencies give students experience providing personal care to clients in their own homes — an environment that emphasizes client independence, communication skills, and adaptability. Many home support employers actively recruit from their co-op student cohorts.

Acute Care Hospitals: Island Health’s hospital network — including Royal Jubilee Hospital and Victoria General Hospital — employs HCAs and patient service associates in acute care, surgical, palliative, and rehabilitation settings. Hospital-based co-op placements offer exposure to faster-paced clinical environments and broader health care team structures.

Assisted Living & Group Homes: Co-op placements in assisted living communities and group homes develop skills in supporting residents with a range of needs while honouring client choice and autonomy — settings where the person-centred care principles developed throughout the HCA curriculum are most directly applied.

Hospice & Palliative Care: Victoria’s hospice and palliative care network provides co-op placements for students with a calling for end-of-life care — one of the most meaningful and emotionally demanding specializations in the HCA role, covered directly in the program’s Palliative Care course.

Care aides usually work 8- to 12-hour shifts, with full-time employees working 36 to 40 hours per week. Evening, weekend, and holiday shifts are common, and on-call and part-time work is also available. WorkBC The co-op placement gives students direct, first-hand experience with the scheduling realities of health care work — preparing them fully for the workforce before graduation.

The salary profile for HCA Co-op graduates mirrors that of standard HCA graduates, with one important distinction: the 495 hours of co-op work experience count toward the 600-hour threshold that unlocks access to Practical Nursing Access programs — meaningfully shortening the time between graduation and the next stage of career advancement.

In British Columbia, health care aides (NOC 33102) typically earn between $22.37 and $29.83 per hour Job Bank, with wages rising as B.C.’s health authorities continue to invest in workforce retention and capacity.

According to the Health Employers Association of BC, the starting hourly wage for HCAs in publicly funded settings ranges from $27.92 to $29.83 (as of April 2024), depending on the employment sector — with eligible employees accessing a comprehensive benefits package and pension plan through the Municipal Pension Plan. Choose2care

WorkBC reports average annual earnings for HCAs in B.C. of approximately $49,756 WorkBC — a reliable, professionally meaningful income supported by collective agreement wage structures in most publicly funded care settings.

The co-op component of this program provides 495 hours of documented, employer-verified work experience in a B.C. care setting. This is a direct and significant head start on the 600 hours of HCA work experience required to qualify for Practical Nursing Access programs — the established pathway from HCA to Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) designation and the considerably higher earnings that accompany it. Graduates of the Co-op program who transition directly into employment after graduation may reach the 600-hour LPN eligibility threshold faster than graduates of the standard program.

Most graduates start with casual or part-time employment and work up to full-time status gradually Choose2care — and for Co-op graduates, the relationships built during the placement frequently translate into casual or part-time offers from their co-op employer upon graduation, shortening the typical transition-to-employment timeline.

Sources: WorkBC — NOC 33102 | Government of Canada Job Bank — Health Care Aide BC | Choose2Care BC