The provincial government has introduced legislative amendments meant to increase protections for students and enhance accountability for private career colleges.
"Ensuring students receive post-secondary education from reputable institutions that are professional and deliver quality programming is of the utmost importance," said Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Greg Turner. "We are pleased to bring forward these changes, which will modernize the process of regulating these institutions while putting government in a position to strengthen standards and further protect students who are learning in this rapidly growing and evolving educational sector."
The amendments to the Private Occupational Training Act would:
- Create a formal mechanism for students to register complaints against a training organization.
- Give the government authority to establish certain programming and service standards.
- Allow the government to set regulation in areas such as the retention and sharing of student records and other student protection policies.
- Change the registration requirements for training organizations from annual to one-time registration.
- Introduce a compliance order system that would allow more options to remedy issues besides revoking registration.
"New Brunswickers need to know the graduates entering our workforce are appropriately trained and qualified, regardless of whether their training was delivered through a public or private institution, and our students depend on government to protect them from situations where they can be taken advantage of, financially or otherwise," said Turner. "Making these changes will increase transparency and accountability for those subject to the act."
The Private Occupational Training Act sets the minimum requirements for the registration of private occupational training organizations. There are 51 such organizations registered in the province, offering 240 registered programs and serving more than 3,000 students. Programs cover a range of occupations, including business administration, cosmetology, engineering technology, massage therapy and personal support services.
