"Please join us - we need you," Quebec Premier Francois Legault implored Quebecers as he launched the campaign in Quebec City alongside Seniors and Caregivers Minister Marguerite Blais and Education Minister Jean-Francois Roberge.
"This operation is crucial to prepare ourself for a possible second wave" of the pandemic, Legault said.
The accelerated three-month paid training session for new orderlies will kick off June 15. Anyone interested can get more information and register here.
People who successfully complete the training - which will be paid at a rate of $760 a week - will be guaranteed a full-time job as of September at a long-term care facility for seniors, known in Quebec as CHSLDs, that will pay a gross salary of $49,000 a year.
The training is only available to people who commit to working full-time at a CHSLD; no part-time positions will be offered.
More than 60 per cent of the roughly 4,700 COVID-19-related deaths in Quebec during the pandemic have occurred at CHSLDs.