CANTON
– At the same time students are returning to schools across the North Country,
a group of 15 Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) employed by United Helpers
Mosaic are returning to the classroom to participate in the state’s first
apprenticeship program for DSPs.
The
program, which was launched as a collaboration between United Helpers Mosaic,
St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES and the New York State Department of Labor includes
144 hours of classroom instruction and between 3,000 and 4,000 hours of on the
job training broken into several categories, which relate to the profession.
Classroom
instruction will be led by BOCES, while the Labor Department will oversee job
training and monitor each employee’s training log.
“I’ve
always wanted people who work as DSPs to be able to do this as a career and
have a clear career ladder,” said United Helpers Mosaic Staff Development
Director Jason Matthie. “I feel this helps us accomplish this and I’m immensely
proud of this program.”
Department
of Labor Apprentice Training Representative Nick Gratch oversees 100
apprenticeship programs across the Northern Region of the state.
“Historically
apprenticeships have been associated with manufacturing or construction, but
now we’re delving more into health care and other fields,” he said.
The
benefits of an apprenticeship in any field are clear, he said, paid on the job
training and experience that will prepare you for a career and not just a job.
“At
the end of this program you could be a DSP anywhere in the country and a really
good one,” Mr. Gratch said, adding the number of people graduating from this
program each year will create a “pipeline” for people in leadership positions.
“For United Helpers this program provides
us the satisfaction of being able to offer more opportunities for our
employees,” Mr. Matthie said.
The employees though, won’t be the only
ones who benefit, Mr. Matthie said.
“It is universally understood that a
more professional, highly trained workforce equates to better satisfaction with
services and quality of life for those people who receive services from Mosaic,”
he said.
United
Helpers employs roughly 225 DSPs who provide care and assistance for
individuals with developmental disabilities in St. Lawrence County.
For
more information on how you could become a DSP, please call (315) 393-3074 or
visit
www.unitedhelpers.org/employment.
For information specific to the apprenticeship program, please contact Mr.
Matthie at jrmatthie@unitedhelpers.org.
