IGLULIK - Nine students from Iglulik training to work in the community's new long-term care facility travelled to Toronto in October to get practical experience caring for elders.

The home and community care worker students completed their practicum at Leisureworld Caregiving Centre in Scarborough, Ont., from Oct. 5 to Oct. 25, according to Leisureworld staff educator Tabatha Howard.

Howard said the partnership developed after former employee June Young, now the project co-ordinator for the Iglulik Community Care Centre, contacted her for information about the facility. Young and Howard then discussed the idea of bringing the students to the 301-bed Leisureworld facility to complete their hands-on training.

"I said 'absolutely, let me know when they're going to come,'" Howard said.

Howard said the success of the program could lead to a regular partnership between the Scarborough facility and students from Nunavut.

"We talked about having students come down next year and making this a regular thing," she said. "Basically when they're ready to do their clinical placement, we would be able to assist them."

Howard said a more structured training program, including the possibility of having Inuktitut training manuals and fact sheets, could be developed.

"This trip was the trial," she said.

Student Cora Akittirq's said it was her first trip to Toronto. She said she learned a lot during her time at Leisureworld.

"We had to be on the floor before 7 a.m. and hear what happened during the night and what has to be done during the day," she said.

Akittirq said the skills she and other students learned will be used in the Iglulik facility.

"The experience was great because we wouldn't be able to start working there if we didn't have the Toronto clinical, experiencing the environment and the people," she said.

Young said the program graduated all nine of its students.

"All 100 per cent passed," she said. "They were very, very dedicated to working with the elderly.

"I was so pleased I had the opportunity to take them to Toronto."

Howard said the facility often trains students from Toronto-area colleges.

"This is the first time we've had students from so far away," she said. "We're excited to have them come back."

The Department of Health and Social Services funded the trip.

The 10-bed Iglulik long term care facility is scheduled to begin accepting residents in April 2010, according to Pam Coulter, communications and social marketing analyst with the Department of Health and Social Services.