Some CDI College recruiters are misleading students, Marketplace investigation finds
CBC
A CBC Marketplace investigation into CDI College, one of Canada's largest for-profit career colleges, has found a pattern of misleading practices being used to pressure would-be students into signing up for online programs that can cost upward of $20,000.
Marketplace has documented some CDI admissions representatives misleading journalists posing as potential online students on accreditation, salary and job rates after graduation, as well as signing up unsuitable candidates and pressuring students to enrol.
Higher education expert Prof. Glen Jones, from the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), calls Marketplace's findings on the college "abysmal."
"I think it is terrible," Jones said. "We're talking about a life choice here. We're talking about something that's very important to an individual who is aspiring to improve themselves within their life and in their career, and to be lied to, to not have complete information about the program they're about to take, that's terrible."
WATCH | Marketplace investigates CDI College:
CDI College has been in operation for more than 50 years, with more than 20 locations in five provinces. It is now operated by Eminata Group, the parent company of a number of private colleges in Canada, including CDI College, Vancouver College of Art and Design (VCAD), Vancouver Career College and Reeves College.
The founder and chairman of Eminata Group is Peter Chung, from Vancouver, who previously operated Wilshire Computer College in California before it was investigated by the state attorney general in the early 1990s, in part for misleading students.
CDI College, while not responding to specific Marketplace findings, said "it is possible there [might] be cases where employees may do something not condoned by the school."
Marketplace has spoken with more than 20 current and former CDI online students across the country, many of whom say they have been left thousands of dollars in debt while no further ahead in their careers.
To investigate what CDI promises would-be students prior to enrolling, Marketplace producers posed as potential students and documented what CDI admissions representatives tell those who inquire about CDI's online programs.
In conversations with three different CDI admissions representatives, Marketplace journalists were provided misleading and contradictory information regarding accreditation for various online programs offered at CDI.
When asked if the Human Resources and Payroll Coordinator program is accredited and recognized, the recruiter said: "Oh, of course. We never offer any programs where it's not accredited or recognized. We would not."
The admissions representative also said that students in Ontario get jobs "only because it's an accredited program."
But Marketplace has found that the majority of CDI's online programs are not accredited by a third-party or accrediting body. One CDI education manager in the online division also admitted in an email to a former student, after they enrolled, that "very few of our programs are accredited."
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