Our twelve week training course is 200 hours long and is offered once every 3 months. Classes are scheduled from 5 to 8 PM on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and from 7:00 AM to 1:30 PM on Saturdays.

The curriculum has been approved by the Arizona Department of Health Services for training certified caregivers and also by the Arizona State Board of Nursing (ASBN) for training nursing assistants. Graduates take the ASBN certification exam (written test as well as a manual skills exam) to become CNAs.
Trainees learn about traditional training topics (personal care issues – bathing, dressing, feeding, toileting, ambulation assistance—the aging process, chronic diseases and treatments, communication, ethics and boundaries, and professionalism) and receive additional instruction in life/employability skills areas such as cooking, home management, house cleaning, interpersonal communication skills, conflict resolution, problem behaviors, stress management skills, time management skills, and healthy lifestyle choices.

Unlike many traditional on-the-job training programs, trainees are given time to practice their skills before being asked provide direct care. During clinicals supervised by nurses, we give them experience in both geriatric and acute care, so that they can identify their interests and preferences and match them to the jobs to which they will apply.

The program is unique among other state-approved training programs in that it leads trainees through five caregiving levels (supervisory care, personal care, directed care, assisted living manager, and nursing assistant) and prepares them to work across a diverse spectrum of long-term and acute caregiving settings.


DCGA Graduates, Summer 2003
What We Provide For You
  • Excellent training as a Caregiver
  • Excellent training as a Nursing Assistant
  • Generous tuition assistance
  • Hands-on experience
  • Multiple healthcare career paths
  • Social service support during & after training
  • Scrubs, comfortable nursing shoes, gait belt, watch, stethoscope, blood-pressure cuff
  • Ongoing continuing education classes after training

Job Placement
Once trainees have completed the 12-week training, our Employment Specialist works to place students in positions with one of our employer-members. We carefully match individual trainees’ needs with particular job openings.

We first meet with employers while a particular training program is in session to determine current job needs and openings. We then meet with all trainees about two weeks before graduation to discuss in detail their job preferences regarding location, duties, hours, type of facility, and the like, and match these preferences to current job openings with our providers-members.

Meet Our Graduates

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