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• Academic Excellence
• Administrative Excellence
• Effective Orientation
• Internship and Practicum
• Job Placement Assistance
• Personal and Financial Counsel
• Pre-Enrollment Assessment and Testing
• Sector Involvement
• Student-Centric Core Value

Summary

Personal and Financial Counsel

By the time many private career college students begin their studies, they already have significant responsibilities. Those students who have been out of school for a number of years are concerned about their ability to succeed at the post-secondary level. Working with students to develop a solid support mechanism, and to provide financial counsel through informed staff and student loan representatives is helpful to the student achieving success.

While the first contact with a prospective student is normally a casual, introductory interview, during the second meeting between a student and college staff, a variety of financing options are usually discussed. Once a student decides to apply for Canada Student Loans funding, college financial aid staff typically provide the student with detailed Canada and provincial student loans information. Some colleges even administer comprehension tests to measure student understanding of their obligations and responsibilities under the Canada Student Loans Program.

Most private career colleges surveyed have one or two people on staff whose responsibilities include working with students on matters relating to funding their education. Larger institutions, particularly those with student enrollment greater than 200, are more likely to have a full-time financial aid specialist on staff. Medix School in Kitchener recently hired a full-time financial aid specialist tasked with undertaking activities to improve the college’s student loan repayment rate. Where the hiring of a full time specialist is not feasible in smaller institutions, the goal should be to have one person on staff who is well trained and resourced to provide timely and informative counsel to students and to oversee an effective default management program.

Provincial student loans representatives play an important role in ensuring that students have the most current information regarding student loans. Smaller career colleges especially benefit from periodic contact from their representative. These visits provide updated information to college financial aid staff on any changes to student loans programs, and often involve meeting with students either individually or collectively to answer questions or troubleshoot issues.

Case Study

Personal and Financial Counsel

The Universal Learning Institute (ULI), with campuses in Richmond, Vancouver, and Surrey, British Columbia, is one of the many smaller career colleges that does an admirable job of providing counsel and information to students. Students who are interested in seeking funding through the Canada Student Loans Program are required to attend a 90 minute information interview where they are informed of their rights, responsibilities, and obligations regarding student loans. The key to the effectiveness of this interview is that nothing is rushed. College staff view the interview as an opportunity for relationship building, as much as for providing financial counsel. Therefore, they take whatever time is necessary with the student.

This focus on relationship building is reflected in the classroom as well as in personal and financial counsel to the student. According to Lonnie Belfer, Vancouver Campus Manager, many of their students are “dealing with barriers [to student success], having not been in any kind of training environment since teen years, so it is very intimidating for them. If we can get their guard down (by building relationships with them), so they can be receptive to the learning, they can have success”.

While ULI is relatively small and does not have a full-time position dedicated to financial services, staff work hard to overcome this limitation, creating a family atmosphere, where students feel valued, and are comfortable approaching staff to seek advice. How effective has this approach to personal and financial counsel been? Two of the campuses report a student loan repayment rate of more than 90 percent, with one having a repayment rate in excess of 95 percent.

Innovative Ideas

Personal and Financial Counsel

Here are some personal and financial counsel strategies and initiatives that your private career college might adopt:

1. If you have a small campus, build on your greatest natural strength: a sense of family. Develop an open door policy with students. Consider adopting some of the student-centric ideas outlined in Section 2 – Student-Centric Core Value.
2. In the pre-enrollment interview, take time to deal with potential barriers students might encounter in pursuing post-secondary education. Students will have a better chance of being successful if barriers are identified, and addressed, early on.
3. Develop a system to provide financial counsel to students throughout pre-enrollment, enrollment, attendance, and early withdrawal and graduation phases.
4. Designate someone from your staff to become a financial aid expert. While this may take some time and effort to accomplish, it will help ensure that students receive high quality counsel, and consistent post-graduation follow-up that could help boost repayment rates on student loans.