Coming Soon
Social and community service workers — NOC 42201
Potential entry-level employment pathways may include:
- Community Support Worker
- Community Inclusion Worker
- Residential Support Worker
- Supported Living Worker
- Disability Support Worker
- Developmental Services Worker
- Mental Health Support Worker
- Recovery Support Worker
- Addictions Support Worker
- Outreach Worker
- Street Outreach Worker
- Shelter Support Worker
- Housing Support Worker
- Supportive Housing Worker
- Seniors Support Worker
- Dementia Support Worker
- Life Skills Worker
- Autism Support Worker
- Behaviour Support Assistant
- Community Program Worker
- Community Services Assistant
- Client Services Assistant
- Intake and Referral Assistant
- Case Management Assistant
- Community Resource Navigator
- Employment Support Worker
- Vocational Support Worker
- Family Support Assistant
- Recreation and Inclusion Worker
- Peer Program Support Worker
- Residential Care Support Worker in non-regulated roles
Employment titles and qualification requirements vary by employer.
The program is delivered through In-Class or Combined delivery.
Distance-delivery component
Any distance-delivery component must be:
Synchronous
Supported by the institution’s learning-management system
Scheduled and attendance-tracked
Equivalent in academic expectations to in-class delivery
Asynchronous resources may supplement instruction but do not replace required live instructional hours unless specifically approved.
Mandatory in-person components
The following must be completed in person:
Personal-support laboratory activities
Infection-prevention practical assessments
Mobility and positioning simulations
Assistive-technology demonstrations requiring physical equipment
Crisis-prevention practical assessments
Emergency-escalation simulations requiring equipment
Medication-packaging and storage demonstrations where physical materials are used
Any competency assessment requiring direct physical observation
Practicum
Documentation, EHR and AI laboratories may be delivered in person or through a secure synchronous environment where the instructor can directly observe and assess the student.
Recommended delivery balance for the combined instruction
50% in-class and supervised practical instruction
50% synchronous distance instruction
100% of practicum completed in person
The program consists of:
- 800 instructional hours (40 Weeks at 20 hours per week)
- 200 practicum hours (8 Weeks at 25 hours per week)
- 1,000 total program hours
- 48 calendar weeks for Full-time and 75 calendar weeks for Part-time
Admission Requirements
Applicants must meet both the Educational Admission Requirement and the English Language Proficiency Requirement and must has successfully pass the Admissions Interview.
Educational Admission Requirement
Applicants must meet one of the following:
- Graduation from a Canadian secondary school or an equivalent international secondary-school credential;
- Be 19 years of age or older on or before the program start date.
No prior healthcare, community-support or social-services education or employment experience is required.
English Language Proficiency Requirement
Applicants must meet one of the following:
- Successful completion of three years of full-time secondary education between Grades 8 and 12, or two years where the completed years were Grades 10, 11 or 12, in English in a country where English is one of the principal languages;
- Successful completion of two years of full-time post-secondary education at an accredited institution where English was the language of instruction, in a country where English is one of the principal languages;
- Verified results, dated no more than two years before the program start date, from one of the following:
- IELTS Academic: overall 5.5;
- TOEFL iBT: overall 46;
- CAEL: overall 40;
- CELPIP: Listening 6, Speaking 6, Reading 5 and Writing 5;
- Duolingo English Test: overall 85;
- PTE Academic: overall 43;
- Cambridge B2 First: overall 160 or grade C;
- Cambridge Linguaskill: overall B2;
- LANGUAGECERT Academic: overall B2;
- Michigan English Test: overall B2;
- iTEP Academic: overall 3.5; or
- EIKEN: Grade Pre-1;
- Swenam College ESL Pathway - Successful completion of Swenam College’s PTIRU-approved English as a Second Language Program, Intermediate Proficiency Level 1 – Language and Culture, with a minimum final grade of 80%.
- For an eligible mature Canadian citizen or permanent resident who cannot access sufficient educational records: the applicable education attestation and Accuplacer scores of Reading 230, Writing 230 and WritePlacer 4.
All admission requirements must be satisfied and documented before the student is admitted. Requirements may not be waived or substituted unless a change has first been approved by PTIRU.
Admissions Interview
The admissions interview will be used to ensure that the applicant:
- Understands the nature of community support work;
- Understands that the program is non-clinical;
- Understands attendance, assessment and practicum expectations;
- Understands the physical and emotional nature of some training activities;
- Has realistic employment expectations;
- Understands the difference between this diploma and regulated healthcare, nursing, counselling or social-work education; and
- Has had an opportunity to ask questions and make an informed enrolment decision.
Foundations of Community Support and Human Services
- Explore the role of community support workers, human-service systems, person-centred practice, accessibility, social determinants of health, resource navigation and professional boundaries. Students also learn how to document, report, refer and escalate concerns appropriately.
Human Development Across the Lifespan
- Examine physical, cognitive, emotional and social development from infancy through later adulthood. The course considers the influence of family, culture, trauma, disability, neurodiversity, life transitions and resilience.
Professional Communication, Interviewing and Helping Skills
- Develop practical skills in active listening, rapport-building, interviewing, goal clarification and professional communication. Students practice intake conversations, difficult discussions, referrals, family communication, supervisor updates and team collaboration.
Ethics, Law, Privacy and Cultural Safety
- Learn the ethical and legal responsibilities of community support work, including confidentiality, consent, professional boundaries, human rights, accessibility and safeguarding. The course also emphasizes cultural humility, anti-racist practice and Indigenous cultural safety.
Mental Health and Trauma-Informed Support
- Build foundational knowledge of mental health, trauma, stigma, grief, stress and recovery-oriented practice. Students learn to recognize observable concerns, communicate supportively, connect clients with resources and escalate emergencies within their role.
Disability, Neurodiversity and Positive Behavior Support
- Study intellectual, developmental, physical, sensory and learning disabilities, autism and neurodiversity. Students learn inclusive communication, sensory awareness, visual supports, assistive technology, environmental adaptations and non-clinical positive behaviour support.
Crisis Prevention, De-escalation and Workplace Safety
- Learn to recognize distress, conflict and escalating behaviour and respond using non-physical prevention and de-escalation strategies. Topics include safe positioning, respectful boundaries, emergency escalation, incident reporting and worker self-regulation.
Personal Support, Activities of Daily Living and Assistive Technology
- Gain supervised practical experience in personal support, hygiene, grooming, dressing, nutrition, hydration, infection prevention, mobility assistance and home safety. Students also work with adaptive tools and assistive technologies that promote independence and dignity.
Seniors, Dementia and Chronic Health Support
- Learn about healthy aging, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic-health awareness and the changing support needs of older adults. The course emphasizes person-centred communication, routines, safety, nutrition, mobility, social inclusion and caregiver support.
Substance Use, Harm Reduction and Recovery Support
- Develop non-clinical knowledge of substance use, addiction, stigma, harm reduction, overdose awareness and recovery support. Students learn supportive communication, resource navigation, referral, documentation and emergency escalation.
Case Management, Community Resources, Documentation and Electronic Health Records
- Build practical skills in intake, service-plan implementation, community-resource research, referral, follow-up and professional documentation. Students practice case notes, progress notes, incident reports, handovers and secure use of simulated electronic client records.
Medication Assistance, Safety and Health Awareness
- Learn medication terminology, packaging, storage, reminders, client refusal, errors, near misses and documentation. The course focuses on safety awareness and professional boundaries and does not authorize independent medication administration.
Digital Health and Responsible Artificial Intelligence
- Explore digital-health systems, assistive technologies and responsible use of artificial intelligence in community support. Students learn privacy protection, de-identification, prompt development, output verification, bias awareness, accessibility and human oversight.
Professional Practice, Career Development and Capstone
- Prepare for employment through résumé and cover-letter development, interview practice, networking, workplace communication and digital skills. Students also complete a supervised capstone project that applies their knowledge to a practical community-support topic.
Community Support Worker Practicum
- Complete a 200-hour supervised practicum in an approved community-support, disability-support, mental-health, seniors-support, supportive-housing, outreach or recovery-service setting. Students apply their learning while developing professional conduct, communication, documentation, teamwork and workplace readiness.
Program Scope
- This is a non-clinical community-support diploma. Graduates are trained to observe, support, communicate, follow approved plans, document, report, refer and escalate concerns within workplace policies and professional boundaries. The program does not prepare students to diagnose, provide counselling or psychotherapy, perform nursing procedures, independently administer medication or replace regulated professionals.
Upon completion of this program the successful student will have reliably demonstrated the ability to:
- Explain the roles, responsibilities, employment settings and non-clinical scope of entry-level community support workers.
- Apply person-centred, strengths-based, trauma-informed and recovery-oriented principles.
- Demonstrate professional communication, active listening, interviewing, helping, boundary-setting and team-communication skills.
- Apply ethical, privacy, consent, human-rights, accessibility, duty-to-report and cultural-safety principles within British Columbia workplaces.
- Relate human development across the lifespan to communication, behaviour and support needs.
- Recognize observable support needs and changes related to mental health, trauma, disability, neurodiversity, aging, dementia, chronic health conditions and substance use without diagnosing or clinically assessing.
- Apply role-appropriate mental-health, disability, neurodiversity and positive-behaviour-support strategies.
- Support activities of daily living, comfort, nutrition, hydration, mobility, accessibility, routines and independent living through non-clinical methods.
- Use approved assistive technologies, communication supports and environmental adaptations.
- Apply harm-reduction, overdose-awareness and recovery-support principles within role boundaries.
- Use non-physical crisis-prevention, verbal de-escalation, workplace-safety, incident-reporting and emergency-escalation procedures.
- Explain medication-safety, label, storage, observation, documentation, reporting and escalation requirements without independently administering medication.
- Describe intake, needs-identification, service-planning, coordination, referral, follow-up and evaluation stages within the support-worker role.
- Identify and verify community resources and support supervised navigation and referral activities.
- Create accurate, objective, respectful and confidential case notes, progress notes, incident reports, referrals, handovers and simulated electronic records.
- Use approved digital-health and artificial-intelligence tools responsibly, including privacy protection, de-identification, output verification, bias review and human oversight.
- Apply infection-prevention, safe-body-mechanics and occupational-health-and-safety practices.
- Demonstrate cultural humility, Indigenous cultural-safety awareness, inclusion and anti-discriminatory practice.
- Maintain professional boundaries, self-awareness, self-care, accountability and appropriate consultation, referral and escalation.
- Integrate program learning through an employment-focused capstone, professional portfolio and supervised 200-hour practicum.