Post-Diploma Certificate in Mental Health Recovery Practitioner

at NorQuest College - Edmonton Campus Canada

The Mental Health Recovery Practitioner post-diploma certificate program provides health and human services professionals with the knowledge and skills to work with clients experiencing mental health and concurrent disorders. The program is offered in a flexible combination of online courses and live classroom instruction on evenings and weekends.

The program emphasizes acquisition of applied skills and best practices in direct client care, advocacy, ethics, and work with families and communities. A key component of the program is work in labs and practicum. The program builds upon students’ previous training and experience, and graduates are equipped to meet client and employer needs in a range of relevant settings.

Practicum/Work Experience
This program includes a practicum totalling 120 hours and 15 hours of community service learning.

NorQuest’s Health Care Aide program is among the largest in Canada and prepares you to be part of a health-care team in a variety of different settings, providing frontline care to clients in need of assistance.

Student Success
Students are more likely to be successful in this program if they:

• Are physically and emotionally able to manage workplace demands
• Have access to a vehicle to travel to complete their practicum
• Have access to a computer and basic computer skills
• Applicants should review the job requirements listed below and assess your ability to fulfill the demands of the health care aide occupation.

As a health care aide, you must be able to:

• Work day, evening, and night shifts any day of the week
• Be on your feet for extended periods of time
• Bend, squat and lift up to 40 pounds to move clients who have minimal body strength
• Function effectively in stressful situations
• Perform all skills independently

The Health Care Aide Workplace Education option is offered throughout Alberta in partnership with health-care employers. Consult your employer if you are interested in this program option.

Practicum/Work Experience
This program includes four practicums totalling 800 hours.

The Interdisciplinary Therapy Assistant diploma program prepares students to work in today's interdisciplinary health care systems. This program will provide students with a strong occupational and physical therapy assistant background, and incorporate essential assistant-level skills in speech language therapy and therapeutic recreation. Equipped with skills in these four rehabilitation disciplines, students will be prepared to meet industry demand and work in various general therapy, rehabilitation, as well as discipline-specific positions. If you enjoy helping people and want a career assisting patients to overcome injuries, or impairments, this diploma program could be for you.

The program delivers theoretical knowledge and hands-on skills using a balance of discipline-specific and interdisciplinary courses.

Program graduates will be prepared to:

• Communicate and collaborate as a valuable member of a client-centred interdisciplinary health-care team
• Assist with effective physical therapy and occupational therapy practice by providing safe and competent care across client populations
• Support other rehabilitation disciplines, including therapeutic recreation and speech-language pathology
• Demonstrate effective professionalism, leadership, and reflective practice skills

Applicants are requested to review the job requirements listed below and assess their ability to fulfill the demands of the therapy assistant occupation. As a therapy assistant, you must be able to:

• Work shifts and weekends
• Be on your feet for extended periods of time
• Use your knees, back, and arms to assist clients
• Lift 30 pounds
• Touch and provide care for clients of all ages, cultures, and genders
• Manage time and resources in a busy work setting
• Communicate and collaborate effectively in a team
• Enjoy working with people

Environmental technicians provide an important service to society by helping protect and sustain the long-term health of our ecosystems. This two-year diploma program will prepare students for technical work in the environmental sector.

Students will gain the practical knowledge and skills needed to offer professional advice on a wide range of subjects, including: environmental impact assessment; hazardous and non-hazardous waste management; waste reduction and reuse strategies; air, soil, and water pollution prevention and monitoring; compliance auditing; and contaminated site investigation and remediation.

This skill set is based on an integrated, hands-on training program that gives graduates a good working knowledge of physical and life sciences, including general biology, ecology, toxicology, chemistry, physics, and statistics.

The program includes hands-on training in both laboratory and field settings. Students will also have the option of taking part in a co-operative work term. Following completion of the program, students will be eligible for designation as a certified technician.

Accounting technicians are involved in the day-to-day practical work of accountancy and play a key operational role in producing reliable financial information. They may also perform a wide range of finance roles, from accounts clerk to financial controller and beyond.

Graduates from this program will have the basic theory, technical knowledge, computer competencies, and skills to enter the accounting field at an entry-level position. Our program equips graduates to perform financial accounting, budgeting, costing, and tax returns. The work experience component of the program allows you to gain hands-on experience in the field.

What to Expect as an Accounting Technician

• Accounting technicians are involved in processing invoices, recording receipts and payments, payroll, bookkeeping, auditing external and internal work, and preparing and checking ledger balances and other monthly and yearly accounts. They also handle company expenses, control budgets, prepare financial transactions, and use computerized accounting systems. Accounting technicians usually work regular weekday hours in a comfortable office environment.
• Accounting technicians can work on their own, in a large accounts team, or alongside professional accountants. While they are not accountants, they can perform many of the same functions and are qualified to take accounts beyond the trial balance stage, as well as prepare full financial accounts. There is always a strong demand for these skills in industry.
• Self-employed accounting technicians provide a range of accounting services to businesses, which may include advising on budgets and taxation issues, calculating end-of-year accounts, and consultancy.

The Educational Assistant program prepares students to work in educational and community settings. The program focuses on diversity and inclusion, training students to support children and youth with a variety of learning needs, and helping them to reach their potential.

By providing inclusive classroom learning and hands-on practicum experience, the program equips graduates with the knowledge, interpersonal, and practical skills to support students both one-on-one and in small group environments.

The program will train students to be an education assistant through inclusive classroom learning and hands-on practicum experience. Graduates will have the knowledge, interpersonal and practical skills to support students both one-on-one and in small group environments.

Practicum/Work Experience

• This program includes a 200-hour practicum and a 45-hour practicum seminar.

The Early Learning and Child Care certificate program prepares graduates to provide quality child care in a wide variety of settings and to plan appropriate activities for the children in their care. Knowledge of child development, family dynamics, play, and program planning will equip you to support the healthy development of children through child-centred learning experiences.

Practicum/Work Experience

• This program includes two practicums totalling 400 hours.

Build the skills you need to thrive in a dynamic business world and choose from five specializations in the second year—Management (entrepreneurship or business operations), Accounting, Human Resources Management, Finance, or General Studies—in which you will develop a core understanding of business fundamentals for any career you choose.

Specialization
Applicants can apply directly to the specialization of their choice. Specialization courses are usually taken in year two.
There are five specializations for the Business Administration program; each provides a flexible and dynamic core understanding of business fundamentals with a wide assortment of job opportunities:

Accounting specialization
Graduates with an accounting specialization have an aptitude for numbers and enjoy problem-solving. They are able to look at the overall big picture while determining the bottom line. They are prepared to work with companies in financial, computerized tax, and cost accounting areas.

Human Resources Management specialization
Graduates with a human resources management specialization will know how to improve corporate culture and increase employee productivity. They will be confident in creating performance management policies, employing effective hiring and retention practices, reviewing and recommending employee compensation packages, creating hiring selection criteria, and applying employment law.

Management specialization
Graduates with a management specialization are becoming increasingly important to business in our competitive economy due to their strategic planning and analytical skills. They assist companies in integrating planning and development strategies using problem-solving techniques and consensus building. Leadership, marketing, and financial information are also studied.

• Entrepreneurship focus: for students who are interested in starting a business of their own or who wish to help a newly formed business grow. It provides a thorough understanding of what is required to start and maintain a sustainable venture. Students will acquire the tools necessary to identify opportunity, assess entrepreneurial potential, produce a business plan, organize, promote, and finance a business, and prepare a marketing and sales structure.
• Business operations focus: for students who are interested in how businesses supply, produce, and distribute goods and services in the most efficient and profitable way possible. Students will learn how to plan, control, and optimize business systems and techniques to deliver projects on time and on budget. Learning how to assess and improve productivity throughout an organization will make these graduates a valuable asset to any organization.

Finance specialization
Graduates with a finance specialization will be well positioned for work opportunities in banks and any financial services organization. As a financial professional, this program prepares students in the areas of financial planning, principles and industry standards, financial products and services, tax and legal implications, managing risks, and building financial customer service sales and expertise.

• Financial services focus: for students who are interested in securing a role in a bank where they can serve customer needs for saving and borrowing. Students will learn principles of personal finance and banking including consumer and business lending, credit management and financial services selling and ethics.
• Financial planning focus: for students who are interested in helping people achieve their financial goals. Students will gain technical knowledge in personal financial planning, Canadian investment funds, insurance and taxation

General Studies
Students may elect not to have an area of specialization. These students would take the common first-year courses, then choose 10 additional courses out of all Year 2 courses offered.

Practicum/Work Experience
This program includes an optional paid co-op placement totalling 640 hours.

This program is designed to provide employment preparation training for adults with mild cognitive developmental disabilities.
Through a combination of classroom and workplace instruction, students will acquire training on current equipment, an understanding of current workplace practices, and increased self-confidence while receiving ongoing, intensive support and mentoring from staff.

During the classroom portion (term 1) of the program, you will participate in Job Safety Skills, Workplace Communication, and Career planning. You will also have the opportunity to participate in a number of community based learning events including various field trips and volunteer opportunities.

The work experience (in terms 2 and 3) is critical in assisting you in obtaining real world, hands-on, practical training. By experiencing work in variety of local businesses that you are interested in, you will gain valuable skills and business connections.
Transitional Employment Program is also known as the Transitional Vocational Program. Visit Alberta Community and Social Services for more information.

Practicum/Work Experience
This program includes 450 hours of work experience:

NorQuest College’s Justice diploma program is an interdisciplinary program that allows students to gain skills and knowledge across the spectrum of the justice field. It is a unique offering in the Edmonton region and in Alberta. The program offers broad education in the justice field that leads directly to a career as well as university transfer courses for laddering opportunities to university. Students will select from a variety of electives that are linked to areas such as diversity and inclusion, Indigenous justice, youth justice, law enforcement, and corrections.

Graduates will be prepared to explore a number of career options within the justice field and to work collaboratively with other justice professionals. Justice students will explore a broad range of skills important to a justice career including crisis intervention skills, health and wellness initiatives, and strategies for working with diverse groups of Canadians. Students have the option to focus on specific areas of interest, including youth work, corrections and law enforcement, Indigenous justice, advocacy, and many others.