Academy of Learning College

They reply right away when someone inquired about their school, i respect someone who do their job professionally even if it is this something that so simple to everyone's opinion, to me this signifies the school prestige on handling their policy and rules for overall performance of the school and its employees.

I took the Community Service Worker course through the Academy of Learning College campus in Summerside, PE from 2014 - 2015.

For not being in school for the last 10+ years I found the facilitators and administrator at this campus to be very accommodating and welcoming.

The actual course is lead through a virtual instructor (not a professor) who I found to be nice, however was almost too nice and would forgive other classmates late assignments, grammatical errors and essentially "babied" the students. The virtual classroom is probably the programs' biggest downfall. There is no role-play exercise nor demonstration on how to interact with clients or how to actually assist clients with mental health or substance abuse issues. It is basically a program of definitions and is only useful for an introductory course (a very expensive one).

The virtual course-ware consists of cheaply made slide shows that are laden with spelling mistakes and biased opinions from whomever created the slides. Stock photos and smiley faces everywhere! We were told on many occasions that we would not become professionals. If this isn't the case then lower the tuition. Once a day at a certain time, the instructor turns on her webcam for an hour and that's your class.

Unfortunately, you are not permitted to buy your own textbooks to lower your tuition costs and are automatically included in your program (which can be convenient if you want to start school right away).

While this Diploma looks great on my resume, it did not give me the qualifications to feel comfortable in my field, and ironically I had Honours marks in all subjects and failed two job interviews because I was unable to accurately answer the interviewers' questions (which were not even part of the program but should have been).

I took it upon myself to further my education through online courses and certificate programs (more money out of my pocket), as the education I received through the Academy was simply not up to today's standards in this career field.

They do offer a clinical placement opportunity which is required in order to graduate (you have to find the place and set it up yourself). When I had applied to this program I was told that since I was working full-time while in school that they would accommodate my clinical hours so that it wouldn't interfere with my job. 8 months later I found out that this isn't the case. I was told that if I wanted to conduct my clinical placement in a facility that actually pertained to the program I would have to either quit my job, or do a full-time 40 hour a week clinical while working 40 hours per week at the same time. Fortunately I have a job that was "approved" for a service work field and I was able to use my working hours as my clinical hours, but I was not able to learn anything new, as well as I had missed out on an opportunity to "get my foot in the door" in a facility that I would want to work in.

For $15,000 I expected more, I expected to feel confident coming out of school and I expected to have learned my money's worth. If you want to be an actual Addictions Counselor or a Mental Health Worker, go through a University. A Community Service Worker on it's own is essentially like a referral service for clients (which isn't bad if that's what you'd like to do).

All in all, I would suggest going to the Academy of Learning College as stepping stone before going to a University.