2010 Highlights - OACC
Click on the subject below to see OACCs related activities
Career College Quality Assured Initiative
Communications
Conference
Dental Hygiene
Elected Officials
Employment Ontario / WSIB
Financial Aid Office
General Accreditation/Apprenticeship
International Students
Marketing, Government Relations and Public Relations
Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU)
PCC Act Review
Program Standards
Student Success
January – June. OACC’s CCQA Committee continued to refine the design of the quality initiative and began to address the need to promote the values of such an initiative in order to get at least 30 PCC locations to commit to participate so that development of the web based application could commence.
July . OACC secured a commitment from 42 career college campuses and the committee met with the software developers to begin to look at the scope of work and the development milestones
August. CCQA committee met and began to develop the content for the student survey and the self evaluation survey tools to be used in phase 1 of the CCQA initiative, and approve the scope of work which set October 31 as the target for the completion of the phase 1 development work.
January – present. OACC Voice monthly Newsletters were distributed to members.
January - present OACC wrote articles promoting the career college sector that were published in a variety of free daily newspapers.
April.OACC held its 37th annual conference in Collingwood, featuring an address by the Honourable John Milloy, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities
May - present OACC held meetings to plan the 2011 joint OACC/NACC conference in Niagara Falls from May 4-6 2011
September. OACC hosted a session about the binding policy directive regarding the implementation of national competencies in Dental hygiene program in conjunction with the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, member career colleges, and the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario. Members were able to ask questions in the meeting about submission and implementation timing and agree on an appropriate implementation schedule.
January 18. OACC Executive Committee attended the Canadian Club event that featured an address by Minister John Milloy on the status of postsecondary education over the past 5 years in which he commended the contribution of the private career college sector
March 25.In response to an invitation from Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, OACC attended the 2010 provincial budget lockup and reported highlights to members, including an announcement of the continuation of Second Career funding.
May. OACC representatives made a presentation to the Standing Committee on Government Services in respect to two needed amendments to Bill 43, and was successful in having both key changes made to the legislation before it was passed.
June 24.OACC attended a reception for Minister John Milloy and spoke with him about the role that career colleges could continue to play in the training and re-training of Ontario’s labour force.
July 29. OACC met with Premier McGuinty and Minister Milloy at a political event to reinforce OACC’s position with respect to the need for policies that encourage fullr utilization of the resources of the career college sector to help address growing demands for postsecondary education
August 11. OACC made a presentation to Minister Brad Duguid at a consultation session on the need to more fully utilize the resources of the private career college sector to address growing demands for postsecondary education without dramatically increasing spending on infrastructure projects at public institutions.
January. OACC compiled the results of its survey of members with respect to the impact of changes to Second Career policies on enrolment
April - May. Following the budget announcement that Second Career funding would be continued for two years, OACC prepared a paper highlighting the results of the member survey on second Career, met Ministry staff and made a submission on recommended changes to the tuition cap policy re Second Career
July – September. OACC’s committee met to identify other issues of concern regarding the Second Career program to raise in a follow up meeting with the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Employment and Training Division. The committee identified the role of career colleges in relation to the training of WSIB clients as an issue to be addressed and a request to meet with WSIB officials was submitted.
January – present. OACC staff organized 6 training sessions for financial aid staff at member schools.
May. OACC staff attended the Ontario Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators conference.
January – august. OACC processed student loan applications on behalf of member career colleges
July – September. OACC’s committee met several times to develop a plan for reaching out to the graduates from trades programs at career colleges and their employers in order to get letters of support for the career college sector and career college programs. The committee set a goal to meet with key government officials in 2011 to demonstrate through the letters of support the value of the career college sector and achieve level 1 equivalency from the apprenticeship program.
June – September. OACC’s committee developed a position paper outlining the reasons why the provincial Government should promote to the federal Minister of citizenship and Immiggration the need to amend its policy on the issuance of work permits to international students to include thos international student attending career colleges. In August, the committee met with a senior policy advisor to the Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Dr. Eric Hoskins, and requested a meeting with the Minister in the Fall.
January – June. OACC developed an on line poster and video campaign for career college students to develop posters and videos on the career college sector and the winners were presented with cash awards. OACC set a plan to run a similar contest for high school students in the Fall of 2010.
January to present. OACC drafted and published a newsletter for high school counselors that will be produced and distributed two to three times annually.
April. OACC joined the Ontario school Counsellors Association (OSCA) and was successful in its bid to be included as a presenter at the the OSCA conference being held in toronto in November.
June – July. OACC’s committee recruited a government relations consultant and the OACC Board engaged John Nunziata for a 3 month retainer commencing on July 13. IN August, Mr. Nunziata interviewd all OACC board members and met with the board to establishits list of priorities in order to begin to develop a legislative book of issues and their history.
August – September OACC raised with the Toronto Transit Commission grave concerns that the policy on its new Postsecondary metropass excluded career college students, and was accepted to make a presentation to the commission on September 30 to request that the policy be amended to treat all students equitably.
January – August. Ministry staff including the Superintendent of Private Career colleges, Manager of Quality and Partnerships Unit, manager of Enforcement Unit, and other policy staff attended six OACC Board meetings in 2010 to discuss issues of importance to the sector.
January to present. OACC’s executive committee held regular meetings with the superintendent of Private Career colleges every 6 weeks to follow up on a variety of current issues relating to the regulation of the sector.
January – May. OACC met with the Manager of the Quality and Partnerships Unit and staff to discuss the pending roll out of the gathering and publication of performance and accountability measures for the private career college sector. OACC was particularly interested in ensuring that the proposed methodology would be valid and lead to meaningful data. In August OACC learned that this initiative had been put on hold indefinitely.
May. OACC joined Minister Milloy’s Green Advisory Panel to provide valuable input regarding the need for trained people to work in fields related to the Green sector. The panel met three times between May and September.
June. OACC had a pre-release debriefing with Ministry staff about the student loan default rates report for the 2006-07 cohort of borrowers.
June. OACC provided a tour of several private career colleges for Nancy Naylor, newly appointed Assistant Deputy Minister of the Postsecondary Education Division of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
September. OACC met with Ministry officials to determine if OACC could take on a role providing pre-screening services for career colleges applying for program approvals in order to ensure that application submissions would be complete and able to be processed in a timely manner, thereby addressing the backlog of program approvals resulting from incomplete submissions. In September, OACC’s Services committee began developing a proposal for such a service to be presented to the OACC Board in October.
July to present. OACC established a committee to review the current PCC Act, 2005 to identify areas that should be changed as part of the mandatory review by the Superintendent that must be completed prior to September of 2013. The committee plans to consult with all OACC members as part of its process.
January. OACC met with Ministry officials from both the Postsecondary Education Division and the Strategic Program and Policy Division to discuss the gaps and concerns over nomenclature that existed in the Ontario Qualifications Framework, and the implications for the private career college sector. The Ministry decided after that meeting to review the framework and consult with OACC further before proceeding any further. As of August, the review work was still underway.
July. OACC participated in a stakeholder meeting held by the Strategic Program and Policy Division to do a final review of the processes that had been used to develop the new program standards for the Tractor trailer Driver program and the esthetics program, and seek input on the timing to be associated with the roll out of those standards. In July/August, OACC drafted a proposal for such implementation that was submitted to the quality and Partnerships Unit, and in August reviewed the binding policy directives for both prior to their release on August 13
August – September. OACC was contacted by the project consultant responsible for the development of a program standard for Hairstyling programs for both career colleges and community colleges and referred several OACC representatives to be involved at the Steering committee and the working Group level. As a result, five OACC representatives were selected and work was targeted to begin on October 4. OACC was assured that its members would have an opportunity to participate in focus group meetings on the standard in late November or early December.
January – present. OACC launched its Alumni Association for graduates of OACC member colleges. The Alumni Association offers discounts on products and services such as car insurance.
September – OACC chooses a provider for the new student card solution. Mimic Print and Media Services is working to provide OACC members with personalized student cards at a competitive rate.
September – present. OACC launches the second Career College challenge, aimed at students attending Ontario’s secondary schools; open from November 2010 to March 2011.
Events
Next Board Meeting
OACC Annual General Meeting
Thursday, May 30, 2013 @ 2:30 pm
Caesars Hotel & Casino, Windsor
Next OSAP Training Session
To Be Determined
OACC' 40th Annual Conference
Quality In Education
May 29, 30 & 31, 2013.
Conference Registration Now Open!
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