The failure of Ontario’s government to protect students who lost thousands after enrolling in an unregistered career college is an “unmitigated disaster” that points to a much wider problem with the province’s policing of private training operators, provincial Ombudsman Andre Marin says.
In a scathing report released yesterday Mr. Marin outlines the case of Bestech Academy, a small unregistered private college that was shut down by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities last fall, leaving dozens of students in the lurch.
Calling the episode a “fiasco,” Mr. Marin says the province “failed to deliver on the promise that students in Ontario should get the education they expect,” and made a dozen recommendations to prevent similar cases. They included a new “buyer beware” Web site to post warnings of illegal private career colleges and tougher enforcement to prevent such schools from continuing to operate, as Bestech did, despite several warnings from regulators.
Bestech “was allowed to line its pockets with public funds while flouting the law,” Mr. Marin said in releasing the report.
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This report is just the tip of the iceburg if I have it right. It seems to be going on right across the country and a lot of students are being ripped off.
I’m working on a post about this. These are private businesses and it is no different than buying a used car. While many private colleges are fantastic, I have had some experience with this, having developed several career programs — under the Ontario MOE guidelines — for Academy of Learning’s head office in Richmond Hill, back in 2000/01 when I was still consulting. It’s buyer beware and all that implies.
Kinda reminds one of other provincial oversight that is being neglected by McFibb such as his apparent reluctance to properly inspect private nursing homes and commercial propane yards both of which have recently ended up with terrible consequences.
One would think that McFibb was trying to lose the next provincial election with scandal after scandal piling up at his door steps such as eHealth.
All Tim Whodat has to do is sit back and watch Dalton & his government self destruct.
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I guess I took a little different position on the matter. In this case, McGuinty and company are not to blame in quite the way Mr. Marin describes because Bestech was unregulated and was not under the jurisdiction of the “Private Career Colleges Act, 2005.”
Its complicated and not easily policed because they are private businesses. My former boss,the MPP was also the Parliamentary Assistant to Colleges and Universities, so I lived with these kinds of problems for nearly four years.
In other words, the problem is not new. I am impressed that at least there is now legislation. Whereas before it was just guidelines.