The Government of Alberta’s new registry of private career colleges (PCC) is being called a major win for students, and a strong move forward for transparency in post-secondary.

Momentum, a Calgary based non-profit that has been working to improve transparency and accountability for PCCs since 2018, applauded the government’s move to launch the registry to help end predatory behaviour by bad actors.

“For many years, students have been coming to us with concerns. A lot were related to debt, having to try and pay off a student loan, at the same time not being linked to a career or a good job. They were still struggling in seeking employment, still struggling in our economy, but having significant debt,” said Courtney Mo, Director of Community Engagement for Momentum.

The new registry provides prospective students the hours of a program, number of weeks that the program runs, the tuition cost for the program, and the books and supplies cost.

It also allows students to see the status of programs at colleges, whether they are allowed by the province, under a stop order, or suspended.

Stop orders occur when restrictions are placed onto the operations to bring them into compliance with the Private Vocational Training Act, whereas suspensions cease operations.

Since June of 2024, compliance orders have been issued against 15 PCCs, including Alberta Paramount College, Aquinas College, Brookes College, City College of Management, ERP College, Glenbow College, Global College of Business and Technology, Nova Career College, Prairie Western College, QCOM College of Technology, and Rosewood College in Calgary.

Province providing safety for learners through registry

Minister of Advanced Education Rajan Sawhney said that the new registry provided more assurances for students.

“Private career colleges play an important role in Alberta’s adult learning system, and they offer a diversity of learning approaches and vocational training. Unfortunately, there are also some bad actors, and it is our responsibility to ensure students are not taken advantage of and are spending their hard-earned money on high-quality educational experiences,” she said in a media release when the registry was announced.

Mo said the new registry was the number one recommendation that Momentum had put forward to protect students.

“These programs cost upwards of $20,000–25,000 and while they’re shorter term programs, still spending three to six months of your life on career training and education is a significant amount of time. So, being able to make an informed decision is incredibly important,” Mo said.

“What we’ve heard from the beginning is that from many of the high performing colleges, so-called good colleges, that the problem players are a problem for them too. It affects the reputation of the industry as a whole. It directs students that are seeking education to potentially poor quality colleges instead of good quality colleges.”

She said that it would also help to address the issue that students face with high pressure PCC loans, and predatory behaviour in the marketplace.

“Students have told us about high pressure sales tactics, and the recruiters that are very aggressive provide false and misleading information. They’re often third party recruiters for colleges, and it’s very well compensated, so there’s a great financial motivation to have a student sign on the bottom line,” Mo said.

Having the comparison amoungst colleges offering the same program would also allow students to price shop against the high pressure sales tactics, said Mo.

“Now they can compare programs in terms of relative length and relative costs, not only within the private career college system, but maybe within public college system. They’ll be able to compare apples and apples around what they would be training for, how long, and at what cost—and that’s never been provided with with such accuracy and availability to date,” she said.

Mo said the next steps would be for Momentum to promote further transparency and regulation in the PCC industry.

“The standards around recruitment are really important to address, but we’ve also heard that it’s sometimes people from vulnerable communities that are recruited to become recruiters, and so there’s this, there’s this complexity around the industry,” she said.

“We’re just we’re looking to prevent it from happening in the first place, and that there be greater responsibility on the part of the private career college to ensure accuracy and high quality standards when it comes to recruitment of learners.”

That includes ensuring that learners who have low English skills are enrolled without their knowledge into a program or signed up to loans, and that qualifications to meet program requirements aren’t being falsified by recruiters, she said.

A full report on Momentum’s vision for Private Career Colleges can be found at momentum.org/publications/a-community-vision-for-the-future-of-private-career-colleges.