Statistics Canada
Symbol of the Government of Canada

Site navigation menu

Educating Health Workers: A Statistical Portrait

Warning View the most recent version.

Archived Content

Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.

Mary K. Allen, Rita Ceolin, Sylvie Ouellette, Johanne Plante and Chantal Vaillancourt

Content note: At this moment, full content is available in PDF only.

To access the PDF publication, please use the "Full content in PDF" link on the sidebar (on the left-hand side of this page).


There has been much talk recently about looming shortages in Canada's supply of individuals working in health occupations. To understand the degree to which the supply of workers in health occupations is meeting (and will meet) the health needs of Canadians, Health Canada—through the Advisory Committee on Health Delivery and Human Resources (ACHDHR)—contracted the Centre for Education Statistics at Statistics Canada to study the relationship between education and training and the supply of entrants into health occupations.

Using major Statistics Canada data sources related to the education and training of Canadians, the intent of this report is to present available information that can address some of the questions identified during the Health Human Resources and Education (HHRE) nation-wide consultation held in 2005 (see Allen et. al. 2006). As such, this report reveals some important information about what happens before, during and after health education. It focuses on interest in health occupations, the characteristics of students and faculty in postsecondary health programs, the labour market experiences of recent graduates from these programs, as well as the ongoing participation of health workers in formal and informal training.

As a starting point in understanding the flow of individuals into and through health education programs, it is important to learn more about the size and nature of the population of individuals who are interested in health occupations.


You need to use the free Adobe Reader to view PDF documents. To view (open) these files, simply click on the link. To download (save) them, right-click on the link. Note that if you are using Internet Explorer or AOL, PDF documents sometimes do not open properly. See Troubleshooting PDFs. PDF documents may not be accessible by some devices. For more information, visit the Adobe website or contact us for assistance.