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PRIVATE CAREER COLLEGES

Secondary school students are very familiar with University, Community Colleges and Apprenticeships, but most people know very little about Private Career Colleges. That is why we will be devoting a significant amount of space on this web site to help you understand more about how most private career colleges operate.

	There are over 450 registered Private Career Colleges in Ontario. Some of the colleges are small, with fewer than 50 students, while others have over 1000 students enrolled at any given time.
	All Private Career Colleges offer diploma and/or certificate programs that, for the most part, can also be obtained through Community Colleges;
	All diploma programs have been approved by the Ministry of Education and are closely monitored for compliance;
	Private Career Colleges do not offer as many diploma programs as Community Colleges, but the ones they do offer are recognized by all employers as providing training that is at least as good as one would obtain through a community college
	The main reason for the small number of different programs offered by private career colleges is that when people turn to a private career college for guidance and assistance, they are searching for a way to get into a desired career. Therefore, the private career colleges try to offer the courses which will have the best chance of accomplishing that primary goal of the students;
	The difference between Private Career Colleges and Community Colleges is not so much in the content of the program, but rather in the method of delivery.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Private Career Colleges have been around for decades, but they have kept a pretty low profile, especially among secondary school students.

Originally, private career colleges appealed to certain specific segments of the population, such as:

	People who were unemployed due to downsizing, companies cutting back on staff, layoffs, etc. Once a person found him or herself unemployed, especially if the person had worked for a fairly long time in one position, he/she found it difficult to find another meaningful job with the same level of pay without first of all taking some kind of retraining.
	People who were working in a company, but in order to qualify for an advancement or promotion, needed to take some additional training.
	People who were looking to begin a new career. It has been said that secondary school graduates today can expect to work in as many as five or six different careers during their lifetime. Each time you change careers you may have to take some specific training to become qualified.
	People wishing to enter the workforce for the first time. These would include women who had decided to raise their family, and then once all of the children are in school, want to begin a career of their own.
	People who have become disabled in their current employment often need to be retrained in order to qualify for other employment.
	People who are on welfare or some other kind of social assistance often turn to private career colleges for training in order to improve their quality of life.

SYSTEM DESIGNED FOR OLDER ADULTS

Most of the people who turned to private career colleges were generally in their 30's and 40's, and some were into their 50's and 60's. Few students in private career colleges were in their 20's.

Therefore, the system had to be designed to meet the needs of older adults with respect to the method of delivery of the programs.

	A person receiving a diploma or certificate from a private career college had to be just as qualified and trained as one receiving a similar program from a community college, therefore, all of the programs in a private career college are approved and regulated by the Ministry of Education. Whether your diploma is from a private career college or a publicly-funded community college, the diploma is equal in the eyes of the corporate world.
	Because the programs are all government regulated, students going to a private career college are eligible for OSAP loans in order to help obtain their post-secondary education.
	Generally, an older adult in his 30's or 40's cannot afford to put the rest of his life on hold for two or three years in order to become trained for another career. Therefore, private career colleges are structured so that for most programs you can receive the necessary hours of instruction in less than a single year. This is done by going to school five hours a day, five days a week, continuously from beginning to end with no long holidays. After all, students who enroll in a private career college program want to get qualified for a new career. They don't want holidays; they want to begin work as soon as possible; so they are willing to get the studies over as quickly as they can.
	Many of the students who attend a private career college have not received formal education for over 10 or 20 years. Since it may be difficult for them to learn how to be a student again, the programs at a private career college are given one course at a time. For example, instead of taking four or five different courses each semester, thus requiring a person to concentrate on four or five different topics, each with its own homework and assignment demands, you only have to worry about one course at a time at a private career college. You take that one subject five hours a day, every day for about two weeks until you have accumulated the hours necessary in order to cover the curriculum content. This is the most efficient method of learning. You only have to deal with one subject. You have a couple of hours of homework in one subject only. And you take your exam within two weeks so everything is fresh in your mind.
	Many people enrolling at a private career college appreciate the fact that the courses are offered either from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. or from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. each day. This allows them to continue to work at a part-time job in order to earn money to pay for normal everyday expenses. Don't forget that many people in their 30's and 40's have a family to support and need to earn a certain level of income in order to survive.
	Private career college programs also begin at different times of the year. For example, it may be possible to enroll in the Business Administration program of a private career college every month. This is an important element of private career colleges since when a person needs to be trained for a new career, he cannot always wait for nine or ten months for the beginning of the school year in September. If you get laid off in February, you want to begin your training in March at the latest. Because private career colleges deliver one course at a time, a person only has to wait for the beginning of the next course to begin the program.
	Private career colleges also had to offer their programs at a cost that would be less than the traditional publicly funded institutions. Since it was almost impossible to reduce the tuition costs (instruction at a public institution is about the same as at a private institution on an hourly basis), the reduction had to be in Opportunity Cost and Cost of Living. For example, if you can get your diploma in one year instead of three, it means that you save two years of living costs for room and board. It also means that you can be in your career and earning money up to two years sooner if you enroll in a private career college.

CHANGING ENROLMENT TRENDS

In recent years, private career colleges have been noticing a number of significant trends in their enrolment patterns. Where the average age of a private career college student was expected to be around 35 or 40, the number of young people enrolling in programs has resulted in the average dropping to around 25 years of age. This means that there are a large number of people in their early 20's sitting in private career college classrooms.

A careful analysis of the young enrolments has resulted in the following findings:

	Many of the younger students are what we call "underemployed graduates". These are people who obtained a university degree or college diploma but have been unable to find positions that are appropriate for their level of education. There are a lot of underemployed university graduates working at McDonalds, call centers, or at minimum wage retail jobs. These people expected more from their education and now want to receive training in a specific area in order to enter into a satisfying career.
	Many of the younger students are "post-secondary school drop-outs". These are students who completed one or two years of a university or college program and then decided to quit for any one of a variety of reasons. Instead of starting all over again, they have turned to a private career college for help.
	Many of the younger students are Grade 12 graduates who decided to go directly to work right after high school in minimum wage jobs for a couple of years. Once they realize that they need additional training and qualifications they look to private career colleges since they can get their training in a short period of time.
	Some of the younger students are actually coming right out of high school. These are students who know what they want in terms of their career plans and don't want to spend three years in a publicly funded community college getting a diploma that they can get in less than a single year in a private career college. They want to fast-track their way into their chosen career.
	Some of the younger students are actually including a private career college diploma in their overall career plan. They plan on getting their university degree and then go to a private career college to get a diploma or certificate that will help them get started in their chosen career.

Registered Private Career Colleges of Ontario
*In the City of Greater Sudbury*
CTS College Everest College Academy of Learning Sudbury Hairstyling School and Academy of Aesthetics Sudbury Regional Hairstyling School Northern Academy of Transportation Transport Training Centres of Canada Northern Welding Academy 81 West Training Centre Inc.	FOR COMPLETE ADDRESSES AND CONTACT INFORMATION

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT PRIVATE CAREER COLLEGES

Private Career Colleges have one objective, and that is to bring their students, in the shortest possible time, to the level of a beginning practitioner in their chosen career.

	Most programs you will find at a private career college are one year or less in duration;
	The Business Administration Program, for example, may only cover a period of 32 weeks at a private career college, whereas a similar program at Community College might take three years;
	Private career college students cover the same minimum requirements as a community college and their programs are approved by the Ministry, but many students are done and ready to graduate in less than 9 months;
	Private career colleges can deliver their programs in a short period of time because students spend more hours in the classroom; go to school every day of the week; complete several hours of homework each day; and do not take holidays;
	Private career colleges also cut out all of the unnecessary material and focus directly on what must be learned in order to be prepared for a career in business, while at the same time adhering to the Ministry guidelines;

In order to understand how this shortening of the diploma program

Click on the pizza at the right for the explanation.

Private Career College programs are generally taught in modules (which resemble courses) of one or two weeks in length.

	Many private career colleges have adopted the modular approach to instruction for a number of very practical reasons.
	For example, if you take a program like the Business Administration Program, you will find that there are about 16 different courses that must be taken to graduate. Instead of teaching many of the courses at once, and requiring students to divide their focus, a private career college will teach one course at a time.
	A course that takes 50 hours to complete will be taught five hours a day for ten days in a row. This means that the student is able to concentrate on one subject at a time. It also reduces the amount of wasted time from moving from one class to another.
	Each module is evaluated separately. Once you complete the required content and write the exam, you go on to the next one until you have completed all 16 courses.
	This means that Private Career Colleges can usually enroll students at any time of the year. For example, it doesn’t matter in which order you take most of the modules, as long as you get them all. So you don’t have to wait until September to enroll in a programs. You can start when you are ready and graduate when you complete all of the modules.

To understand how this works, think about how you would go about describing an elephant.

Click on the elephant on the right for a full explanation.

Private Career College programs appeal to students who need practical skills to enter the work force as quickly as possible.

	Some students of Private Career Colleges have been affected by companies which have downsized or have gone out of business;
	These students are forced to find other employment that provides them with the same level of pay that they were getting in their former job in order to support their family;
	They take one of the private career college programs so that they can get back into a new career as quickly as possible and begin earning income;
	Students in this situation are not interested in all of the "frills". All they want is the basic training to get started in a new career.

Private Career College students may not be particularly interested more academic studies at this point in their life.

	Many of the people who turn to a private career college are former secondary school graduates who have been working for a period time and want something more in terms of a career. They do not want an "education" - they want a career.
	Others are students who have been in school for a long period of time and just want to get out as soon as possible. They don’t want to go to school for another two or three or four years. They simply want to get in and get out and learn what they need to learn in order to qualify for another job or career.
	It has been said that young people graduating from secondary school today will have four or five different careers in their lifetime. This is a prospect that quite frankly frightens some students. The last thing they want to hear is that they will be going to school four or five more times during their working life.
	When it comes time to change careers, many people will likely want to turn to a Private Career College for training because you can get qualified in a short period of time instead of having to go back to school for several years with students who are generally much younger than you.

Private career colleges are also starting to get a lot of students who may have actually completed a University degree program, but who are now looking for specific practical skills in order to get into a career.

	Many young people do not really know what they want to do with their life by the time they graduate from high school. As a result, they enter a university program that gives them a general education but does not give them the practical skills that employers are looking for today.
	A lot of students who are now enrolling at private career colleges have taken one or two years of University and then decide that it is not for them. They then take one of the private career college programs in order to get some meaningful employment in a chosen career.
	Many of the students who have partially completed university degrees will return to university and take one course per year to complete their degree while they are working in their new career. These students have the best of both worlds. As they are building up experience in their new career, they are completing their degree so that after five or more years they will have the experience and the education to advance in the career of their choice.

Secondary School students in Grades 10 through 12 are beginning to ask questions about Private Career Colleges because of the success of the new guidance curriculum.

	Private Career Colleges are getting a lot of inquiries from secondary school students who have already decided what they want to do as far as a career is concerned.
	Many of these students are much more mature than 17 and 18 year olds were twenty or thirty years ago.
	They are ready, know what they want out of life, and do not see the need to waste three or four years living the life of a student in a university or college..
	These students want to begin their career as soon as possible.
	That is why some private career colleges have decided to sponsor special seminars designed to reinforce what is being taught at secondary schools in the guidance and business programs.
	The Grade 10 Career Studies Program, found in the Secondary School Curriculum in Ontario schools, helps students become more aware of all of their options. One of those options which is gaining in popularity is the Private Career College, of which very little is known. This web site has been designed to make you more acquainted and familiar with the private career college option.

Your Career Planner Is A Free Public Education Service Provided by
Robert Kirwan, B.A. (Math), M.A. (Education)
Independent Education & Career Planning Coach
Member of the Ontario College of Teachers
His office is located at 4456 Noel Crescent, Val Therese, Ontario P3P 1S8
Phone: (705) 969-7215