2009 Highlights - OACC

September 24. OACC submitted a paper to the Standing Committee on Justice making recommendations to the proposed Ontario College of Trades to ensure the private career college sector was included in the structure.

June. OACC met with the radio station z103.5 to discuss an advertising campaign for members.

July – November. OACC Voice Newsletters were distributed to members.

August. For the first time, OACC offered co-branded SPC cards to members. The SPC cards allow career college students to receive the same discounts as university and community college students at over 120 retailers.

September. The OACC Online Training Center was launched in partnership with Max Knowledge. OACC Members can sign up to take online courses and earn continuing education units at a discount.

November. OACC unveiled improvements to its web site and student portal, located at www.collegesearch.ca . OACC also entered the world of social networking, adding Facebook and Twitter sites to market new content. OACC wrote articles promoting the career college sector that were published in a variety of free daily newspapers.

April. OACC held its 36^th annual conference in Niagara Falls. Parliamentary Assistant Reza Moridi made remarks.

September. OACC booked Collingwood for the 2010 conference from April 21-23.

October. OACC booked Niagara Falls for a joint conference with NACC in 2011.

June. OACC organized a session about dental hygiene program accreditation with the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, member career colleges, the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario, the National Dental Hygiene Certification Board and the Canadian Dental Accreditation Commission. Members were able to ask questions in the meeting about getting their dental hygiene programs accredited.

March 26. In response to an invitation from Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, OACC attended the 2009 provincial budget lockup and reported highlights to members, including an announcement of new training funds.

June 17. OACC attended a breakfast meeting and had a chance to speak to MTCU Minister John Milloy and then Health Minister David Caplan. OACC spoke to the Health Minister about career colleges’ inability to provide RPN training and waiting for both Ministries to review the Internal Trade Agreement.

September 29. OACC met with Minister Milloy and Dwight Duncan, Minister of Finance, at a reception. OACC talked about the Second Career program with Milloy and the proposed HST with Duncan.

January – December. OACC staff will have organized eight training sessions for financial aid staff at member schools by the end of 2009.

May and November. OACC staff attended the Ontario Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators conference.

July 31. OACC had a conference call with the British Columbia Career College Association to discuss the impact of HST on the sector.

August 6. OACC’s HST committee had a conference call. OACC’s goal is to get education services zero-rated so private career colleges do not have to bear the burden of increased costs under HST.

Ministry staff including the Superintendent of Private Career Colleges, manager of Private Career College Compliance Unit, manager of Private Institutions Unit, and other policy staff attended seven OACC Board meetings in 2009 to discuss issues of importance to the sector.

January. OACC met with staff at the Ontario Ombudsman’s office for an in-depth interview about the circumstances around Bestech Academy with respect to the administration of the P.C.C. Act, 2005.

OACC met with a consulting firm to provide input into MTCU restructuring with respect to PCCs and called for the re-establishment of a branch dedicated to the PCC sector and a Superintendent.

March. OACC had a pre-release debriefing with Ministry staff about the student loan default rates report for the 2005-06 cohort of borrowers.

July 15. OACC met with Noah Morris, Superintendent of Private Career Colleges/Director of the Student Support Branch. It was the first formal meeting between OACC and Morris in his new role. OACC also met with staff from the Ministry of Health to discuss implications of the Internal Trade Agreement.

September 30. OACC met with Minister Milloy’s staff to discuss illegal businesses masquerading as private career colleges and the MTCU’s student awareness campaign.

October 7. OACC met with Assistant Deputy Minister Marion Crane to discuss rogue trainers, MTCU restructuring and the new private career college branch. OACC took Crane on a tour of several private career colleges.

October 31. OACC met with Assistant Deputy Minister Laurie LeBlanc to discuss the Second Career program and other Employment Ontario issues. OACC was LeBlanc’s tour guide through several private career colleges.

October.  The committee began researching the matter of gaining OSAP eligibility for programs offered in an on line format at private career colleges, in order to prepare for a presentation to the Ministry.

October 15. OACC organized a paralegal program accreditation meeting with member career colleges, the Ministry and the Law Society of Upper Canada. Members were able to ask questions about the applications to get their paralegal programs accredited.

October. OACC issued a request for proposal to software developers to create a Quality Initiative that would help members in developing and deploying standards of operational excellence.

November. OACC received seven submissions from software developers and reviewed the proposals in order to make a recommendation to the board.

July 24. OACC had a conference call with the Ministry and TCAF Advisory Board chair to discuss the start team approach. The start team approach – a pre-TCAF intervention by members to assess the situation and help students involved in a closure – is important to OACC.

September 22. OACC met with the TCAF Advisory Board in person to explain the start team approach.