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Article Excerpt
In this issue ...
Private career colleges play a key role in post-secondary education. Their rapid response to demands for training enhances labour market flexibility. The sector needs better self-regulation and its students should receive more public support.
The Study in Brief
Private Career Colleges play an important and unique role in Canada's education system. There are over 1,000 of them, with overall enrolment totalling approximately 125,000 full- and part-time students. The majority provide training programs, usually one year or less in duration, that lead directly to entry-level positions in a particular field of work. Some are single-firm businesses, while others are large, multinational corporations operating in various cities across Canada and the United States.
The time seems ripe to reconsider Canada's approach to private career colleges in two important areas: First, is the sector over- or under-regulated according to the usual criteria for government regulation? Second, should the government provide more financial support to this sector?
All private career colleges and vocational institutes in Canada are governed by provincial statutes and regulated by one or more provincial ministries or agencies. Overregulation stifles innovation and limits entry. The sector and the Canadian labour market would be better served if an expanded system of self-regulation replaced the current approach. Instead of day-to-day, quasi-management of the sector, the role of the provincial authorities would be limited to an annual review to ensure that the relevant provincial association was fulfilling its self-regulatory duties.
The case for public funding for education and training rests on demonstrated direct and indirect social benefits. Aside from possible differences in the nature and magnitude of the social benefits stemming from private vocational education as compared to other forms of post-secondary education, there are no compelling reasons to exclude private institutions or their students from public assistance. Students who graduate from private career colleges fare better, economically and socially, than students who possess only a high school credential, creating social benefits in terms of higher tax revenues and lower rates of unemployment. In addition, the sector provides a rapid training response mechanism to help fill labour market shortages, which raises the overall productivity of the economy. Because private career college students typically pay higher fees than community college or university students, governments could increase the level of public support by upping the student loan limits for students in this sector.
The words "private college" conjure up for most people a vision of a well-established institution attended primarily by children of privilege, such as Ridley College, Albert College, or Upper Canada College. There exists, however, another system of private colleges that spans Canada, providing a growing range of courses and programs that prepare individuals for specific labour market careers.
Private career colleges (PCCs) are not a new phenomenon; some of them date back to the late 19th century, such as Westervelt College in London, Ontario, and others, while somewhat more recent, have a distinguished history. Many of the producers and technical staff who produced Canadian radio shows in the 1950s, for example, were educated at the Radio College of Canada in Toronto. As far back as 1896 there was a national association of PCCs known as the Business Educators Association. Today, it has been replaced by the National Association of Career Colleges (NACC), which has a membership of more than 400 colleges and institutes across Canada. Since the NACC is a voluntary association, however, its membership does not represent the total number of PCCs in Canada, which is over one thousand.
PCCs exist under a number of business models: incorporated businesses, sole proprietorships, and registered partnerships. Overall enrollment in these institutions totals approximately 125,000 full- and part-time students. (1) Students attending these institutions pay fees that, for some programs, are considerably higher than the annual tuition at most community colleges or universities.
Two notable features of PCCs as distinct from other institutions of higher education are of particular interest: First, they are subject to extensive and detailed regulations established by each province and territory. Second, they do not receive any direct funding from provincial governments, although their students may borrow from the same government agencies that loan money to university and community-college students.
This commentary examines the importance of this sector for higher education in Canada and its operational platform, reviews briefly the regulatory framework within which these schools currently operate, and compares and contrasts this sector with other higher-education sectors in terms of its contribution to society and individual welfare. Based on this analysis, a case will be made for changes in how this sector is regulated and for increased provision of public support.
The Operational Framework for PCCs in Canada
PCCs are a significant sector, one that has a unique place in the complicated realm of educational policy in Canada. In this section, I begin with some background information about the sector to inform the rest of the analysis. I then examine how this sector fits into the larger context of education in Canada--how does it compare with the range of publicly funded institutions that exist, both in terms of what its institutions offer and in terms of how it is treated in public policy?
Finally, I examine the two aspects of PCCs that are the main focus of public policy decision, and of this paper: the sector's financial viability, and its regulatory framework.
Sector Overview
As noted above, there are over 1,000 registered PCCs in Canada, with a total enrollment in excess of 100,000 students (Table 1 provides expenditure data for this sector). (2) The majority of these colleges provide training programs, usually one year or less in duration, that lead directly to entry-level positions in a particular field of work. Some of these schools are single-firm businesses, while others are large, multinational corporations operating in various cities across Canada and the United States. (3)
In Canada, PCCs offer diplomas and certificates in a wide variety of subject areas. They only rarely offer associate or baccalaureate degrees, (4) although increasingly, they do so in the United States. Some programs are aimed to train students very specifically for a particular job--for example, in Newfoundland and Labrador, registered private career institutions include the Atlantic Aviation Academy, which trains pilots, and the Boilermakers Industrial Training Centre. Others teach specific skills that can lead to a broad range of possible career options; CDI Canada, for example, provides year-long programs in business administration and paralegal studies. The Academy of Learning offers both professional-designated programs, such as Microsoft certified technician training, and a broad range of computer-related programs that could be applied in a number of careers.
While programs similar to these can be found in community colleges, it is generally agreed that PCCs have a different objective. For example, the Government of Ontario, in its recent review of private career education, notes that "... registered PCCs can provide a suitable alternative to the training offered by colleges, universities and apprenticeship programs.... Several of the colleges have recently celebrated their 100th anniversaries.... All have the common objective of bringing the student, in the shortest possible time, to the level of a beginning practitioner in their desired field." (Ontario 2005a)
The training offered by PCCs often appeals to
* those who need practical skills to enter or re-enter the work force as quickly as possible,
* mature students who are not interested in academic studies at this point in their lives and want to compress the length of training to minimize their time out of the work force, or
* those who want specific practical skills in addition to their academic qualifications to become more competitive in the market place.
While the limited and focused content of private-college programming is attractive to many, another important part of these schools' appeal is their ability to offer many programs on a continuous-entry basis whereas in most colleges and universities students have to wait until the beginning of a new fall or winter semester to enter a program. Some programs at PCCs are offered on an evenings-only schedule that allows people with day jobs to advance their skills without the opportunity cost of sacrificing their current employment. The success of PCCs across Canada suggests that the combination of training available on demand and curricula focused on the skills needed for entry-level jobs resonates with many learners.
The PCC sector experienced a significant structural change in the late 1980s, when the federal government began permitting educational institutions (both private and public) to bid on government training contracts. A large number of new private colleges appeared on the scene simply for the purpose of bidding on these contracts, competing with the more established private schools. This development changed the makeup of the student body, increasing the proportion of older learners, often on social assistance, and decreasing the proportion of students entering directly from high school. Also, the internal standards of the federally sponsored programs at the new schools occasionally clashed with the established standards in the older ones.
PCCs within the Higher Education System
Where do 1,000 PCCs fit into Canada's higher-education matrix, which also contains over 250 public community colleges and technical institutes and more than 90 universities? Are the public and private systems complementary, or overlapping?
At first glance, there appears to be very limited overlap between the PCCs and Canadian universities, but considerable similarity between PCCs and community colleges. Community colleges are crown corporations, agencies of a provincial government; as such they are subject to rigorous accountability for both their programs and their finances. All offer certificates or diplomas. Increasingly, some offer applied degrees or joint degree programs in partnership with universities. As in PCCs, the vast majority of their programs are focused on a particular career, e.g., nurse, accountant, customs broker, biotechnology technician, television broadcaster, etc.
The perception of overlap between the curricula of PCCs and public community colleges is largely due to the similarity in program/course nomendature. Box 1 illustrates this with a partial listing of programs in three subject areas offered at CDI Canada, a large PCC. The program names are similar, and in some cases identical, to programs offered at community colleges or public technical institutes. But there are in fact major differences between the offerings of the two sectors.
Box 1: Academic Programs Offered by CDI College in Canada CDI operates in seven provinces, employs over 900 teachers and staff, and last year enrolled approximately 8,000 students. * Not all of the courses shown below are offered at every campus of CDI. School of Business Accounting administrative assistant Accounting and payroll administrator Computer accounting Payroll Administrator Marketing Management Computer accounting Computer specialist Executive office assistant Small business organization Law clerk Paralegal communications Paralegal administration School of Technology Networking...
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