Canada offers good quality graduate
engineering programs at a very affordable cost. Canadian Universities have
exceptionally high standards of education. Admission to a university in Canada
in a graduate engineering program is quite competitive.
Community Colleges and Technical Institutions are popular
education choices in Canada; they offer professional programs of 1 to 3 years
(often including a work term) that are highly applicable in the job market. Some
community colleges offer university transfer programs that allow students to
take courses that are parallel to those offered for the first two years of a
four year university program. Students must still apply to the university to
gain admission to complete the last two years of the four year program.
The 175 post-secondary institutions which are members of the Association of
Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) are officially known by a range of titles,
including Community College, Technical Institute, University College, and Cégep.
All of these institutions have the primary function of responding to the
training needs of business, industry and the public service sectors. They also
meet the educational needs of vocationally-oriented secondary school graduates,
employment-seeking university graduates, as well as the lifelong learning
requirements of the adult population. Historically, these institutions offered
diplomas as community needs change and evolve and at least 18 are now granting
degrees and applied degrees.
The two- to three-year (or shorter) college programs typically offer
specific, vocationally-oriented curricula, as well as general academic
concentrations. In fact, a significant number of university graduates attend
college upon completion of their degrees to acquire vocational skills for
employment. Colleges typically have more vocationally-related curricula than
universities, with smaller classes, off-campus course offerings, a greater ratio
of laboratory space to classroom space, an interactive teaching style and
inclusive entry criteria. Employment-related programs, including apprenticeship
and continuing education courses, often maintain varying entry levels and range
from the technologies to the creative arts. Colleges maintain renowned Centres
of Excellence in many fields such as information technology, mining, the
environment, and hospitality and tourism. They design curriculum and hands-on
training for future participants in a skilled and specialized Canadian work
force. Other full and part-time programs include health, business, academic
upgrading, applied arts, social services, adult literacy, and university
preparation.
The uniqueness of Canadian colleges lies in the combination of employer-centred
curricula within comprehensive learning institutions which respond to national
economic policy. Colleges are dynamic institutions, constantly changing to meet
the economic and social needs of the communities in which they work. As such,
several colleges have achieved ISO certification and all strive for quality and
excellence in meeting the changing learning needs of society.
University Transfer Programs in Canada
Students intending to acquire a degree at a university can complete their
first two years of study at a community college or university college and earn
credits. Most of the credits earned in this type of program may be transferred
to universities as the first and second years of a degree program. Community
colleges and university colleges that offer transfer programs usually have an
established relationship with nearby universities however, it is important to
check with the college to determine which universities will accept the transfer
credits. You must ensure that the courses you take are appropriate to the degree
you plan to enter in university.
( http://www.studycanada.ca/english/technical_institutes_community_colleges_canada.htm
)
Technical Education in Canada
[This article was published in 1948; for the precise
citation, see the end of the document.]
Education,
Technical. A necessary preliminary to
technical education was the introduction of science teaching in the schools.
Before 1850 practically nothing towards this end had been done. The legislature
of Upper Canada in 1806 granted £400 "to procure certain apparatus for the
promotion of science", but the instruments appear to have served chiefly as
a museum exhibit. Academies taught "natural philosophy", or physics,
surveying, and other practical subjects to a few, and by the thirties grants
were sometimes given to mechanics' institutes to assist them in providing books
or lectures on scientific and technical subjects. Between 1850 and 1870
text-book science, or "useful knowledge", invaded the schools; but the
first high school laboratory appeared in Ontario in 1872. By this time the
writings of Spencer and Huxley and the example of England 's failure to keep up
with improvements in industrial processes effected by technical education in
Europe had awakened educational leaders in Canada. As a result the College of
Technology was established in Toronto in 1871 for advanced technical education.
Evening schools were initiated in the province of Quebec by the Council of Arts
and Manufactures, incorporated in 1872. Government schools for miners were
opened in Nova Scotia in 1888. But technical education in secondary schools
under public control belongs to the present century.
In
1900 the Toronto City Council purchased a building for evening technical
classes; in 1901 they added day classes; in 1904 they placed the school under
the control of the board of education; and in 1915 they completed the
magnificent Central Technical School at a cost of $2,000,000. Meanwhile Hamilton
had built its Technical and Art School, and many other town and city schools in
Ontario had introduced technical departments or classes. This work was
encouraged by the appointment of a provincial director of industrial and
technical education in 1911, and by assisting legislation. To Nova Scotia goes
the honour of the first appointment of this kind, made in 1907, at the time of
the opening of the Technical College at Halifax. In Quebec the provincial
government itself established large schools at Montreal and Quebec to give three
years' training for boys intending to become skilled mechanics. Two fine
technical schools were built in Manitoba in 1910 and 1911. In most other
provinces beginnings were made, but the important developments came after the
Great War.
Dominion
Government Grants.
A Royal Commission on
Industrial Training and Technical Education was appointed by the Dominion
government in 1910, but owing to the War action with regard to technical
education was postponed until 1919. In that year annual grants to the provinces,
amounting to $10,000,000 in ten years, were provided with the object of
increasing the earning capacity, efficiency, and productive power of Canadians.
The money was to be spent for any of a variety of types of vocational or
technical education, and was to be matched by provincial expenditure equal to
the grant received. Within about a year every province had applied for a share
of the grants, and in the ten-year period the number of day-time pupils in
vocational schools rose from 8,512 to 45,617. Since Ontario was the only
province that had earned its full portion of the grant, an extension of five
years was allowed to the other provinces to claim unappropriated balances.
Progress.
In 1933 day technical schools of secondary grade
existed in seven provinces: the Vocational School at St. John, New Brunswick,
had 280 pupils in industrial and technical departments; Quebec in five technical
schools had upwards of 1,600 pupils; Ontario had nearly 10,000 pupils in five
large technical schools, and perhaps 7,000 more taking technical courses in
sixty-two other vocational high schools; in the prairie provinces, schools at
Winnipeg, Calgary, and Edmonton had about 1,500 pupils in technical work; and
the Vancouver Technical School enrolled over 3,000 students in the technical
course. These figures are by no means complete; in British Columbia, for
example, there are eighteen smaller schools with technical departments. In the
whole of Canada in 1933 some 40,000 full-time day pupils were enrolled in
secondary vocational courses other than commercial. To these must be added large
numbers in part-time and evening classes.
Source :
W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto,
University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 279-280.
List of Technical Schools / Engineering Colleges in
Canada
Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology
Camosun College
Capilano College
College of New Caledonia
College of the North Atlantic
College of the Rockies
Columbia College
Conestoga College
Coquitlam College
Fanshawe College - London, Canada
George Brown College
Georgian College of Applied Arts and Technology
Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Québec
LaSalle College International, Montreal
North Island College
Selkirk College
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) International Centre
St. Clair College
St. Lawrence College
The Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences
Bow Valley College International Education
Cegep Marie-Victorin
Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology
Confederation College of Applied Arts and Technology
Douglas College
Fleming College
Institut Teccart
Lakeland College
Lambton College
Langara College
Loyalist College
Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology
Niagara College Canada, Welland Campus
Northern Lights College
Red Deer College
Red River College
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology
Sheridan College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning
Yukon College
