As part of its plan to protect Manitobans against COVID-19, the province has partnered with Red River College to ensure people who will administer the COVID-19 vaccine have the opportunity to upgrade or extend their skills with a new micro-credential, Premier Brian Pallister and RRC President Fred Meier announced today.

“This micro-credential will help us rapidly activate the people we need — including retired health care workers, students and others with a critical baseline of knowledge and skills — as an integral part of our vaccine campaign,” says Pallister.

“We must be ready to ramp up our response as more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine arrive, so we can protect our neighbours and loved ones as quickly as possible. Manitoba’s health-care workers are already an integral part of the COVID-19 response and we are looking for more people to step forward and join Team Manitoba. This new micro-credential will help ensure those hired to administer the vaccine can upgrade their skills if they need it, so they can be ready to vaccinate safely and quickly.”

“Our college community has stepped-up in the fight against COVID-19,” says Meier. “They’ve met the challenges this pandemic has given us head on, worked around the clock, and found new and innovative ways to adapt and deliver our programs, while creating immediate, urgent, short bursts of training to keep Manitobans safe.

“That work won’t stop, and we will continue to leverage our skill and expertise to support our health-care providers — many of whom are RRC grads — who are on the front lines of this pandemic every day.”

Yesterday, the province issued an order under the Regulated Health Professions Act (vaccination administration) to expand the types of regulated professions that can administer the COVID-19 vaccine in Manitoba. The new micro-credential will help ensure they can properly administer the COVID-19 vaccine and help immunize Manitobans.

The eight-hour course, offered at no cost, includes an online portion as well as an in-person lab. Course participants will learn about the virus, become familiar with safe COVID-19 vaccine procedures, learn about immunization and related anatomy, and understand best practices when vaccinating clients.

In addition to the online learning component, the lab allows people to practice and demonstrate their competency in the skills needed to deliver the vaccine safely.

To meet the immediate need to ramp up the province’s immunization campaign, the micro-credential will begin on Dec. 15 in Winnipeg, and will be offered in additional communities in the near future. In order to participate in the course, individuals must first be hired as immunization team members through Shared Health Manitoba.

In addition to immunization team members, the province is also recruiting Manitobans for a number of positions that will be integral to the vaccination campaign. This includes clinic managers, immunization clinical leaders, clinic navigators and post-immunization observation team members.

To see all available positions available in the province’s pandemic response, visit manitoba.ca/covid19/vaccine/jobs.html.

 More information about the RRC micro-credential, including eligibility requirements, is available at rrc.ca/vaccine.