On May 7, the province’s government announced it had introduced amendments to its Private Occupational Training Act (POTA). Among other things, the proposed changes would create a “formal mechanism” for student complaints, allow the government to “establish certain programming and service standards” and bring a “compliance order system” to “allow more options to remedy issues besides revoking registration.”
According to a news release detailing the announcement, POTA sets “the minimum requirements for the registration of private occupational training organizations,” of which there are 51 currently registered in the province, offering 240 registered programs and serving more than 3,000 students.
These career colleges offer a wide range of training, including cosmetology, business administration, massage therapy, engineering technology and “personal support” services.
“Ensuring students receive post-secondary education from reputable institutions that are professional and deliver quality programming is of the utmost importance,” said Greg Turner, minister of post-secondary education, training and labour. “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.”
New Brunswick is not the first province to strengthen these types of regulations.
In January, Manitoba put in place new rules for its private vocational schools through a “modernization” of its Private Vocational Institutes Act — changes that made it so schools teaching subjects such as esthetics, industrial skills, business administration and paramedic services would face greater regulations around how they operate and what they offer students.
Under Manitoba’s changes, vocational schools in the province must publicly disclose information such as program dates, fees and institutional policies; simplify their registration processes; and have performance indicators, such as yearly reports on enrolment, graduation and employment.
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