High school students in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, will be able to get a head start on medical careers through a new elective course beginning in the 2026-27 school year. The class, called Health Careers 20L, is designed for students in grades 10 through 12 to help them learn about different jobs in the medical field before they graduate.
The course will be offered online through the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre, which makes it available to any student regardless of where they live. Local school divisions also have the choice to offer the course in person within their own buildings. Students who take the class will be introduced to roles such as nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, and emergency care, as well as newer positions like physician assistants and virtual health care assistants.
This initiative was created through a partnership between the Ministry of Health, Saskatchewan Polytechnic, and the Virtual Health Hub. By teaching students about these jobs early, the province hopes to encourage more young people to stay in Saskatchewan for their training and future careers. This effort is part of a larger plan to hire more medical professionals, which has already seen more than 2,400 nursing graduates hired across the province since the plan’s inception in 2022.
In Yorkton, the regional health centre has faced staffing shortages that have occasionally disrupted local services like maternity care. Officials believe that providing early exposure to these career paths will help fill high-priority positions in rural and regional areas. The course took 18 months to develop and aims to provide a clear path for students interested in helping their communities through health care work.
