FERRIDAY &8212; A new program at Louisiana Technical College is seeking to help area patient care students broaden their skill sets.

Starting this semester, Ferriday&8217;s Shelby M. Jackson campus is offering a program training Patient Care Technicians.

The program offers students a chance to learn skills relating to phlebotomy (blood work), electrocardiograms and nursing assistance, an education the school thinks will make graduates more desirable on the job market.

&8220;We&8217;re hoping to expand the capacity to where the graduates have three skills and not just one,&8221; Dean Mignonne Ater said. &8220;We hope that&8217;s beneficial not just to the graduates but to the health care recipients as well.&8221;

Entrance into the two-semester program requires a high school diploma and a satisfactory score on the college&8217;s achievement test. If a student has taken the ACT, a qualifying score from that test can be substituted. Students can apply for Title IV Pell Grants to apply toward tuition.

Director of Student Affairs Sherrill Byrd said the college, which already offered a course in nursing assistance, had gotten calls about phlebotomy training and asked around about going into the three-pronged PCT training.

&8220;We checked around with the nursing facilities and asked if there was a need and got a favorable response,&8221; she said.

One of the facilities that gave a thumbs-up to the idea was Riverland Medical Center.

&8220;It looks like a real good program,&8221; Riverland Administrator Vernon Stevens said. &8220;It will better prepare people when they enter the field; it makes you more flexible and gives you more skills to market.&8221;