Students with disabilities gain workplace skills through hospital internships

Project Search student Ashleigh Schagena interns at the Hanover and District Hospital. June 17, 2026. (Scott Miller/CTV News London0

Gord McDougall has been spending his final year of high school at the Hanover and District Hospital, learning skills, that will help him when he soon enters the “real world”. Today, he’s in the hospital’s kitchen, helping out.

“I’m in the dietary department, doing the breakfast trays for the patients for tomorrow. I just finished doing the water and teacups for them, recently,” said the Grade 12 student.

McDougall is one of five Grey-Bruce students with intellectual or developmental disabilities who have spent Grade 12 interning at the Hanover and District Hospital. They’ve experienced every part of the hospital, working in departments like dietary, maintenance, administration, lab, and pharmacy.

“When they started back in September, they were nervous, a little scared, definitely shy. But to see them grow has been phenomenal. Where they started with their skills was very entry level, but once they’ve accomplished those skills, they want more. They’re hungry for it. They’re hungry to learn, and add to their portfolio for the future.,” said Jennifer Graham, an environmental services worker at the hospital, who has been one of many mentors for the students.

“Project Search” is in it’s first year, enlisting students from the Bluewater District and Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Boards. It’s year one of a five-year partnership that will see students intern at the Hanover hospital, which provides a wide cross-section of potential career paths for the students.

“The program itself is essentially a transition to work program. So, students in their last year of high school that have cognitive and/or developmental disabilities, have the opportunity to gain needed skills, to help them be competitive in the workplace when they’re applying for jobs,” said Hanover and District Hospital C.E.O., Dana Howes.

“We have a classroom set up here with a full-time teacher, as well as job coach. All the students come in the morning, they do a little bit of curriculum, employment curriculum, and then they’ll go out into their internships. So, they’ll go through three internships over the course of a full school year where they’ll spend about six weeks in each internship,” said Superintendent of Education Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board, Alex Van Weiringen.

One of the Project Search participants, Ash, says she’s been busy during her time at the hospital.

“I help solve problems. I help fix stuff that is broken. I take out the garbage,” says Ash.

“I learned a decent amount of things, like being around new people is one of them. Getting to know them,” said McDougall.

While the ultimate goal is to gather skills for other jobs, some of the students could end up working at the hospital.

“I honestly believe they could. There’s a couple candidates that I think would be great. There’s different roles in my department that they could participate in. Administrative, they often have assistants out there, and I know they’ve been doing some of those jobs already,” said Graham.

Year two of Project Search already has six students ready to go next September.

“I liked maintenance the most. You get to do different things in different areas of the building,” said McDougall.

“We want to give all our students the opportunity when they leave high school to get full time employment. So, it’s really based for students in the last year of high school, so that they can get real work experience,” Van Weiringen added.