A non-profit organization since 1992, Educacentre College was granted the status of a private college by the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education in December 2015, and at the same time received the education quality assurance seal. Since then, Educacentre College has been able to offer its own certificates and degrees, whereas in the past it had to issue them in partnership with recognized institutions. Further, we are the only French-language college in British Columbia.
I order to reach francophones and francophiles throughout the province, our courses, programs, and services are offered in a classroom setting at one of three campuses, in Vancouver, Prince George, and Victoria. In 2016, we added a satellite campus in Surrey. All college programs are also offered remotely through our virtual campus.
The college offers a certificate and a degree in early childhood studies. Its accredited programs are intended for people who want to qualify to meet the needs of children aged 0 to 5 and with special needs. In British Columbia, the profession is governed by the Early Childhood Education Registry, which establishes a skills profile for early childhood workers and ensures that each institution follows it.
As to the students in our programs, the majority are part-time students who take an average of three years to obtain a certificate and one more year for a degree. On average, our clients are between the ages of 35 and 40, and they are mostly mothers from twenty or so different countries.
There are many institutions that offer the same programs as we do, but in English. The majority of students in those programs are young and can afford to go to school full time so they can get into the labour market more quickly. As the only institution offering the training in French, we face different problems than the English-language institutions do.
Currently, we offer our early childhood programs in collaboration with an English-language college, Northern Lights College. The francophone students are enrolled in that college and obtain a certificate or degree that is jointly awarded by Educacentre College and Northern Lights College. The latter also has copyright over its programs.
Although Northern Lights College is an excellent partner, this situation presents some unique problems. First of all, Northern Lights College oversees tuition fees, which are nearly twice as high as ours. Further, it is difficult to suggest changes to the content, registration process, and admission criteria.
One of our college's greatest strengths is its ability to respond quickly to the specific needs of the francophone community and to work closely with its community partners. As you can see, however, this partnership limits our ability to respond. If we ran our own program, we would be able to implement strategies to better serve our unique clientele.
To address this situation, the college would need to develop its own program and to have it approved by the Early Childhood Education Registry. Designing a program costs about $200,000 and the college does not have access to funding or the budget for program development.
In addition to early childhood college programs, the college also offers the following non-accredited programs: basic family literacy training, which seeks to improve the skills of those working in francophone minority communities; training that provides an introduction to family daycare centres, which helps participants start up their own daycare; Red Cross first aid certification for children; webinars on topics related to early childhood; training at the annual meeting of the Association francophone des éducatrices et éducateurs de la petite enfance de la Colombie-Britannique.
With insufficient funding, however, we are limited in our ability to offer these various types of training. As a result, they are only offered when financially viable.