Strong Support. Strong Voice. Quality Education. Student Success.
Career Colleges Ontario (CCO) is a non-profit organization fighting for the equitable treatment of career college students and a level playing field for its member institutions.
The association’s purpose is to help governments, key decision makers and the public understand the critical role its members and their students play in supporting Ontario’s post-secondary education system and improving the province’s economic well-being.
CCO currently has a membership of more than 260 career college campuses across the province.
CCO members contribute to Ontario’s economy by providing highly qualified graduates in hundreds of essential, skilled fields such as Applied Arts, Business, Healthcare, Human Services, Information Technology, Services and Trades.
CCO has been able to distinguish itself as an association by offering a Financial Aid Office that operates in conjunction with the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities’ Student Financial Assistance Branch. In addition, the association provides a student transcript storage service that is approved by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities for career colleges to use.
The career college sector in Ontario consists of approximately 45,000 students. Annually, it produces more than 33,000 graduates at a minimal cost to taxpayers, because the sector receives no direct operating funds from the government.
The sector is efficient, productive, flexible, innovative and accountable. It is able to shape and expand its programming to quickly adjust to market forces, thereby complementing the educational offerings of the other pillars of the post-secondary education system.
Career college students, like all post-secondary students, must be assured of continued access to high-quality programs of excellence, to credit transfers and post-secondary mobility, credential recognition, equal access to funding opportunities, flexibility in learning modalities, and meaningful performance measurements.
CCO believes that in order to ensure that Ontario has a globally competitive post-secondary education system, the government must take a leadership role in fostering equity, collaboration, respect and recognition among all four pillars of post-secondary education – career colleges, community colleges, universities and the apprenticeship programs.