TORONTO, ONTARIO – April 18, 2024 – Humber and BD (Becton, Dickinson & Company), a leading global medical technology company, are working together to reshape the landscape of health care workforce development and address the evolving needs of the industry along with health human resources.
Medical laboratory professionals play a crucial role in Ontario's health care system, ranking as the fourth largest health profession after doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. Seventy per cent of medical decisions rely on lab results and there is an increasing demand for testing due to factors such as aging population, preventive medicine expansion, and emerging pathogens.
“Health care professionals are vital to ensuring Ontarians can get the care they need and deserve,” said Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities. “That’s why collaboration like this between postsecondary education and industry is so important – it helps more students get the skills they need for rewarding careers that fuel a responsive health care workforce.”
“This National Medical Laboratory Week, I’m encouraged to see this partnership between Humber College and BD that will strengthen Ontario’s health care workforce as our province continues to grow,” said Sylvia Jones, Ontario’s Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “Innovative partnerships like this complement our government’s record investments to deliver the right care in the right place, provide faster access to care, and grow the number of health care workers for today and years to come.”
Humber and BD have executed a memorandum of understanding and will seek to partner to develop initiatives to enhance education, training, and career opportunities for health care professionals. The Humber and BD memorandum of understanding will include several initiatives to enhance education, training, and career opportunities for health care professionals, one of which is exploring the creation of a comprehensive Medical Laboratory Assistant/Technician and Medical Laboratory Technologist (MLT) program. The plan for this program is to equip students with essential skills and knowledge to excel in the rapidly advancing medical technology field.
“Humber has a strong commitment to advancing health care education and workforce development and is eager to partner with industry to advance the sector," said Ann Marie Vaughan, President and CEO of Humber. "Through this collaboration with BD, we will empower students with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in the rapidly evolving health care landscape."
Humber and BD will collaborate to design and develop innovative educational materials, modules and micro-credentials, bridging industry knowledge gaps and providing certification for stakeholders. These initiatives will seek to ensure that the next generation of health care professionals are equipped with the knowledge and skills to use innovative technologies, services and solutions of BD.
"Our intent to collaborate with Humber underscores BD’s dedication to fostering talent and driving innovation in healthcare," said Ivy Parks, President of BD-Canada. "Together, we will seek to develop programs and initiatives that not only benefit our workforce but also contribute to the overall advancement of the industry."
Recruitment and retention of a skilled healthcare workforce remains an ongoing challenge across Ontario and Canada. This issue extends to the field of medical laboratory professionals, with 70 per cent of labs experiencing staff shortages which impact student training during placements.
“This partnership displays the innovative solutions being developed to address our human health resource shortage in Ontario. Our hospital, community and public health labs will benefit tremendously from these new education programs,” said Michelle Hoad, CEO of the Medical Laboratory Professionals' Association of Ontario. “It is inspiring to see these creative solutions from key stakeholders making healthcare education a priority in Ontario. These programs will ultimately benefit millions of Ontarians.”
Humber and BD intend to partner to provide new opportunities for student placement and work-integrated learning within BD, offering Humber students practical, hands-on experience and facilitating their transition from academic learning to professional practice.
About Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning
Innovation. Opportunity. Partnership. Support. At Humber College, we bring it all to more than 86,000 learners, in-person and online. As a global leader in polytechnic education, Humber provides in-depth theoretical learning, hands-on, work-integrated experiences and applied research opportunities to students at three main Toronto locations and beyond. Extensive industry connections, experienced faculty and a comprehensive range of credentials, including honours undergraduate degrees, Ontario graduate certificates, diplomas, apprenticeships, and certificates prepare career-ready global citizens for success in the future world of work. Visit humber.ca.
About BD
BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. The company develops innovative technology, services and solutions that help advance both clinical therapy for patients and clinical process for health care providers. BD and its 77,000 employees have a passion and commitment to help improve patient outcomes, improve the safety and efficiency of clinicians’ care delivery process, enable laboratory scientists to accurately detect disease and advance researchers’ capabilities to develop the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics. BD has a presence in virtually every country and partners with organizations around the world to address some of the most challenging global health issues. BD helps customers enhance outcomes, lower costs, increase efficiencies, improve safety and expand access to health care. bd.com