Health Sciences

Health Care Assistant

Students who are applying to VCC's Health Care Assistant program must meet specific English language requirements, as set by the BC Care Aide and Community Health Worker Registry. 

1. Applicants who provide evidence of three years of full-time instruction in English* must also provide evidence of one of the following:

  1. Completion of Grade 10 English with a minimum 'C' grade, or
  2. Completion of college courses at a Grade 10 English level or higher, with a minimum 'C' grade, or
  3. NG Accuplacer with the following scores:
    • Reading: 230
    • Writing: 230
    • WritePlacer: 4

2. Applicants who do not have evidence of three years of full-time instruction in English must provide evidence of one of the following:

  1. Canadian Language Benchmarks Placement Test (CLBPT) or CLBPT Remote taken within the last 1 year with the following scores:
    • Listening: 7
    • Speaking: 7
    • Reading: 6
    • Writing: 6
  2. Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP General or CELPIP Online) taken within the last 2 years with the following scores:
    • Listening: 7
    • Speaking: 7
    • Reading: 6
    • Writing: 6
  3. International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic, IELTS General, IELTS Academic Online, IELTS One Skill Retake (if using IELTS One Skill Retake, you must also submit the original score report) taken within the last 2 years with the following scores:
    • Listening: 6.0
    • Speaking: 6.0
    • Reading: 5.5
    • Writing: 5.5
    • Overall: 6.0
  4. Canadian Academic English Language Assessment (CAEL or CAEL Online) taken within the last 2 years with the following scores:
    • Listening: 50
    • Speaking: 50
    • Reading: 50
    • Writing: 50
    • Overall: 60
  5. The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT, or TOEFL iBT Home Edition) taken within the last 2 years with the following scores:
    • Listening: 20
    • Speaking: 20
    • Reading: 18
    • Writing: 18
    • Overall: 76

*Applicants must provide a transcript(s) or a BC personal education record as evidence to confirm completion of a minimum of three years of full-time instruction in English. To meet this threshold, the Registry looks to confirm that applicants have studied over a period of three years and completed a minimum of two semesters of studies within each year. In addition, it is expected that the student will be taking full time studies (30 credits per academic year to a minimum of 18 credits per academic year [60% courseload]). In this way, it is typically a minimum of six semesters with total credits between 54 – 90 credits, completed over the three-year timeframe.