As demand for health-care services continues to grow, so does the need for skilled professionals. Okanagan College prepares students for meaningful careers in health care through hands-on learning, industry-relevant training and access to modern equipment and technology. Your support helps ensure students are ready to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing health-care landscape while strengthening the health and well-being of communities throughout the region.
Support a healthy community
Building healthy communities through allied health.
Earlier diagnosis. Care closer to home.
Okanagan College is training the allied health professionals Interior communities need — people who find answers sooner and keep care close to home. The first priority is Medical Laboratory training, launching in Fall 2027. Donor support will renovate and equip the labs these programs — and the ones that follow — require.
Photo: The Health Sciences Centre trains front-line health professionals. The next chapter is allied health.
The backbone of care
Allied health professionals — laboratory technologists, imaging specialists, therapists, respiratory therapists and others — work alongside doctors and nurses. They deliver the tests, procedures and therapies that make early detection and timely treatment possible. About 70 percent of medical decisions rely on laboratory results.
When those results come back quickly, care can start before illness becomes a crisis. Infections are caught early. Cancer treatment begins sooner. Chronic conditions are monitored instead of left to worsen. People spend fewer days in hospital, recover closer to home, and return to work and family sooner. That is how a community stays resilient: not only by treating the sick, but by finding problems in time to change the outcome.
When labs are short-staffed, the opposite happens. Waits grow. Diagnosis slows. Families travel farther for basic testing. Complications rise, and the pressure lands on already stretched hospitals and clinics.
B.C. will need more than 4,000 medical laboratory technologists and assistants over the next decade. In the Interior alone, that includes more than 500 local laboratory roles — on top of dozens of positions already vacant today.
And yet, until now, there has been no post-secondary education for laboratory technologists in the BC Interior. Students who leave the region to train often do not come home. Similar shortages run through imaging, sonography, respiratory therapy and the therapy professions. Local training is how we grow a workforce that stays — and a health system that can keep people well.
“Medical laboratory professionals are essential members of our health-care teams, providing the vital testing patients rely on every day. This investment in training at Okanagan College will help build a strong, sustainable workforce in the Interior, help address the critical shortage of medical lab professionals and reduce patient wait times for testing, diagnosis and treatment.”
— Sylvia Weir, President and CEO, Interior Health
Investing in allied health education, here at home
In 2021, with $5 million in community support, Okanagan College opened its Health Sciences Centre to train front-line professionals — Licensed Practical Nurses, Health Care Assistants, Therapist Assistants, Dental Assistants, Pharmacy Technicians and related certificates.
The next chapter is an allied health hub: local, laddered training from certificates to diplomas, developed with Interior Health, LifeLabs, Dynacare and other partners.
Phase 1 focuses on vital Medical Laboratory Technologist and Medical Laboratory Assistant programs, launching Fall 2027 — the first MLT diploma in the Interior.
The Province has committed $1.9 million to launch the programs. A $2.6 million community campaign will support the start-up costs, including renovating and equipping the specialized laboratory.
“People in the Interior deserve to access care close to home, and that starts with training the people who deliver it. … This is exactly what community-based post-secondary education should do: respond to the needs of the community, connect students to real jobs, and help keep skilled people close to home.”
— Jessie Sunner, Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills
What your gift will do
We need specialist applied learning Level 2 wet labs, equipped with fume hoods, fridges, industry-standard analyzers, microscopes and specimen-handling tools. That lab lets students practise quality control, safety and time-sensitive workflows before they enter a hospital or clinical laboratory setting.
“Laboratory professionals often work behind the scenes, but they are involved in nearly every patient journey.”
— Joanne Isber, Program Director, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Interior Health
Phase 1 - MLT / MLA program launch | Amount |
| Program curriculum, lab renovation, equipment, virtual learning technologies. | $4.5 million |
| Provincial investment secured | $1.9 million |
| Community fundraising goal | $2.6 million |
This investment is the first phase of our allied health vision — local careers, earlier diagnosis, a more resilient community.
Over the coming years, in response to community needs, OC’s allied health specialists will continue to expand, building the workforce in areas like sonography, radiology and respiratory therapy.
Recent OC news
Impact story
Supporting those who care for us: A donor’s legacy in the South Okanagan
When former nurse Teri McGrath describes her support for Practical Nursing students at Okanagan College’s Penticton campus, she speaks with warm conviction. McGrath has become a quiet but extraordinary force behind the success of local nursing students, supporting their education through her Hands On Nursing Bursary.
Each year, she provides second-year students with a heartfelt gift that goes directly toward their tuition. It’s a gesture that says, ‘I see your effort, I believe in you, and our community needs you.’
Together we can keep our community healthy and resilient.
To learn more or discuss a gift to build a healthy community, contact the Okanagan College Foundation:
Helen Jackman – Executive Director: Hjackman@okanagan.bc.ca
Sasha Carter – Associate Director: scarter@okanagan.bc.ca