When Miyuki Kamiya looks back on the past three years she wonders how she managed to make it through.
Kamiya graduated from Vancouver Island University (VIU) with a Health Care Assistant certificate last April and has been working in a career she loves.
As a mother of four, she works casually, dividing her time up between supporting seniors living at Kiwanis Garden Manor Assisted Living and going to people’s homes for Vancouver Coastal Health.
She helps people take care of themselves, whether that means cooking a meal or helping to bathe or shower them, change clothes or helping them with their medication.
“I’m still new to this,” she said. “I love doing what I’m doing and they give me back so much.”
Kamiya knew that she wanted to work with people and VIU’s Health Care Assistant program seemed to fit with what she wanted.
“The program is only 24 weeks long so it wouldn’t take me too long to finish,” she said.
The only thing stopping Kamiya from joining the program right away was her English level.
Kamiya came to Canada 20 years ago and attended ESL (English as a Second Language) classes in Alberta where she lived, but she felt it was not enough.
“Communication wise I didn’t have a hard time, but university writing is on a totally different level,” she said.
She and her family moved to Powell River 10 years ago.
“Before I could go into the program I had to take some classes to improve my English, she said. “I knew my English wasn’t good enough so I started taking ABE [Adult Basic Education] courses.”
She had her level assessed and started at grade 10 English at VIU. Over almost two years she worked her way through grade 11 and 12 at the same time she was taking care of her infant and three other children. She did English, computer and biology classes.
“My husband and children gave me a lot of support,” she said. “Without them I don’t think I could finish.”
Although she did not need biology to enter her support worker program, she thought that it would help her when it comes to talking about the human body.
“I took biology in high school in Japan,” said Kamiya, “but all the names are different.”
She was nervous about taking the step up into more demanding study.
“It was quite intense with a lot of homework,” she said. “I was glad that I had come here for the ABE because I knew that there would be a lot of support for me.”
Kamiya said she has a special place in her heart for her grade 11 English teacher and writing centre mentor Dawn McLean who recently died.
“She was always there to help me correct my English and sometimes the way I would write the reader wouldn’t understand, so she helped me so much with lots of encouragement,” she said.
During the six months of the certificate program, Kamiya was able to do almost two and a half months of practical work to learn her job.
“As soon as you finish you’ve got the job skills already,” she said.
Kamiya said that she and her 15 other classmates had interviews with VCH in the last week of the program and had the option of being placed at Olive Devaud Residence, Evergreen Extended Care or home support for a three month try-out period.
“So we all got jobs,” she said.
